Suzuki Complex!
by JuniperScaymoore
Summary: Ria and Akina Suzuki are two cousins who transferred into Seigaku, but they aren't your average cliche OCs! These two girls dance, sing, and perhaps find a bit of romance on the sidelines. Okay, so there's gonna be a lot of romance. Oops! FujiXOC EijiXOC
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.**

The sliding door opened shortly after homeroom began and everyone turned to stare dully as the teacher strode in. Eyes lit up in interest when instead of going to his desk like usual he stopped in the front, a girl coming in on his heels and doing the same. Talking ceased and the teacher announced: "Everyone, this is Suzuki Ria. She recently moved from the United States so be kind to her." After scanning the room and choosing a seat, he pointed. "Over there, Suzuki-san, you can sit in front of Fuji-kun." Following his gaze, she nodded and began to walk over before pausing. The teacher looked at her and exclaimed suddenly: "Oh, Suzuki-san, would you like to introduce yourself?" She nodded, and opened her mouth to speak.

"My name is Suzuki Ria, and I'm new here to Japan; I enjoy making friends and new experiences but I'm not very diligent in my studies so please take care of me." I bowed, nervous and slightly afraid for what I would have to do in my new school to manage. As I sat down, I looked to the empty seat on my left and felt a pang of loneliness, but shook my head. _Onwards_, I commanded myself. I bent down to get the workbook for Math next period when a voice came from behind and startled me.

"Missing something?" I turned around to see a smiling face with light brown hair looking at me. I smiled, amiable as I should be and answered.

"Just a bit, my cousin Akina has always been in the same class as me, and even now, it's like I expect her to come crashi-," I was interrupted by the loud, rattling noise of the sliding door, and smiled. The homeroom teacher from the neighboring class followed and paused to talk to my teacher, Takanawa-sensei. Still smiling, I returned to my conversation with my neighbor of sorts. "You know who I am, but who are you?"

"Fuji Shuusuke, yoroshiku. Am I to presume that your cousin will be joining us?" Just then, Takanawa-sensei clapped his hands together, commanding silence.

"And it seems like we'll have another Suzuki joining us today as well! Please welcome Suzuki-san's cousin, Suzuki Akina-san." Sensing something behind me, I turned in time to see Fuji-kun's hand rise into the air.

"Sensei, if we have two Suzuki-sans in the classroom how will they know who we're speaking to?" The teacher looked a bit perplexed for a minute, but then looked at me. I coughed but answered slowly.

"Sensei, you can call me Suzuki-chan and you can call Akina, Suzuki-san… ne?" I wasn't exactly sure either, seeing as in the States, we had _never_ had this problem. I looked up to catch Akina's approving eye. Satisfied, Takanawa-sensei nodded and pointed Akina over to the desk next to me. And then, just like that, homeroom was over, and it was time for Math.

I bent over my workbook, dutifully filling the blank notebook next to it with notes. A nervous glance was directed at me from Ria and I nodded absentmindedly. My Japanese was better than hers, though both of us were fluent enough, and the fact that I was always more of a Math person than her added to the responsibility I had to look after her. Behind me, I also heard confusion.

"Ne, ne, Fujiiiii," the disturbance whispered, and I also heard the noise of a notebook sliding over from the desk behind Ria's—just as I was doing for her right now. I absent-mindedly stared out the window while still paying attention to the drone of Sensei's teaching. _Thank goodness for A&E_, I thought to myself, _Math is so much harder overseas!_

Ria, on the other hand, was struggling to make the jump from one math to another. Hopefully my notes would help. I snapped to attention as my notebook was passed back with a colorful pink post-it with words written heavily and neatly on it. Yes, Ria, you're welcome.

The lesson passed uneventfully and as we got ready for English, Ria and I began a frenzy of note passing.

_English Notes__ – Ah well, not like I need to study in this…_

**Akina! I do ****not**** understand the math!**

_Did I not give you my impeccable notes?_

**Yeah, well, it's not good enough—Okay, your notes are AMAZING but stillll**

_Do NOT whine to me in notes!_

**Okay, okay, but what will we do in History?**

_Absorb info like a sponge darling._

**...**

_Thanks for getting a pad out in Tokyo so fast! Aunt and Uncle totally surprised us, we almost stayed with them!_

**Do you **_**doubt**_** my amazing network?**

…_No, not anymore._

**Exactly. So what'll we b—**

**Ria: **My pen jerked off the paper as I tried to hide the note I was writing. My completed workbook (Akina and I really had nothing to do on the flight here), was shuffled to the top of my papers, and as the teacher looked away from the board, everything was fine… until I realized he was going to ask questions. Thankfully, he chose a redhead behind Akina, and we resumed notes.

**Never mind. Who has red hair in Japan?**

_Bet it's fake. He looks so fake hyper._

**Aww, don't label…**

_Shut up, I'll label whatever I want to. For example, this is a piece of paper._

**Aw, I love youuu**

_You better not be doing extra curricular this time. _

**Won't even try. Daddy's scheduling us so badly…**

_Teacher alert!_

**Akina:**I watched as the teacher scolded the redhead up front. Turning so that my back was against the wall and I was somewhat facing the front but still able to see Ria and the seat behind her, I saw that a light brown headed boy was apparently reading the Grammar workbook… which was _much_ thicker than the few 50 pages ours actually was.

_Ask the kid behind you about the kid up front._

**Fuji-kun? Okay… but how?**

_Paper? Hello? Or you could try rolling a pencil w/ a sticky note—you did that last year, didn't you?_

**Fine, fine…**

**Ria: **I quickly taped a note to my pencil and rolled it so it would hit Fuji-kun's shoe. He stiffened and bent over to pick it up. He seemed about ready to offer it to me when he realized the note.

**Who's the kid up front—he seems totally lost in this lesson.**

_**Kikumaru-kun is not very good with lessons, nor is he very diligent with homework.**_

**Okay, so, Kikumaru-san. What's he like? Seems like a very strange guy, with all the energy in the world.**

_**Despite common misconception, Kikumaru-kun doesn't eat anything containing high amounts of sugar in the morning, and he channels his energy into his tennis.**_

At this point I stopped, if only because the rolling was getting a little bit annoying.

**Kikumaru-san plays tennis and does not take a hyper med.**

_He doesn't take a chill pill either, by the looks of it._

**Akina:** I stopped passing notes to return to staring out the window. The weather was nice for a late May day, unlike the heat of Nevada. The catlike boy up front walked back and sat behind me. I laughed as I glanced at the board—his scrawled handwriting almost matched mine, though of course mine was neat where his was messy. The teacher, who didn't seem intimidated at the fact I was a returnee, called me up to correct Kikumaru-san's work. The class laughed at him, though I had laughed at his work. Rising to go up, I felt Ria's stare at my back and imagined her wry smirk. Glancing at the work Kikumaru-san had done, I erased it all and, with quick movement, fixed it to what it should be. I walked back to my seat, but at that time, the bell rang.

We had a short pause to switch to Physical Education. Akina and I just stood—our gym uniforms hadn't arrived yet—as we watched for the student's grab for belongings. Following the teacher outside, we sat on the sidelines as we watched the boys play volleyball. (We didn't know any girls yet, you know?) Fuji-kun, ever smiling, served, with Kikumaru-san randomly spiking at the strangest times. Kikumaru-san also jumped all across the court, hitting every ball that seemed surely out of reach. Fuji-kun hit the ball consistently, and while the other boys tried to hit just as much, it seemed Kikumaru-san and Fuji-kun were the only ones used to running back and forth so much.

When the period was over, it was lunch, so Akina and I took out our bento and sat down outside. We chose a bench that seemed clean enough, and were eating and chatting when Fuji-kun came over and sat down. His light, somewhat girlish voice greeted us. "How did you find the first part of your first school day?" Akina tried to continue eating and listen, but her eating won, and she remained silent as I spoke with Fuji-kun.

"It was fine," I answered, thinking about Math, and then the fun English class. "You play volleyball very well."

"You should see me play tennis; they say I'm much better on thatcourt." Was that an invitation? Probably not, since Fuji-kun seemed like the polite type. We conversed for a while when suddenly Kikumaru-san appeared out of left field and started talking animatedly.

"Ne, ne, Fuji, did you get our table back?" Kikumaru-san caught me off guard, and Akina, who had finished her bento, seemed shocked too. She and I stood up and began to clear our things away.

"We're really sorry we took your table," Akina started, and as we got ready to leave, Kikumaru-san blurted out:

"Oh, no, it's OK! Fuji and I just wanted to sit outside, and we usually sit here when we do but it's okay because we'll just sit here with you." Kikumaru-san plopped down and made himself comfortable with his bento. Fuji-kun likewise sat down and opened his lunch. It was surprising the way Kikumaru-san could skillfully squeeze four or five sentences into one breath. It was also surprising the way Fuji-kun just went with the flow and acted as if this was normal. Akina opened up with conversation to Fuji-kun, and sort of ignored Kikumaru-san with a casual indifference.

"Fuji-kun, the English lesson today seemed to be quite easy for you."

"Fuji's a tensai," Kikumaru broke in, mouth full of bread. "Seigaku's very own genius."

Again, Akina seemed to ignore his presence. "In English as well, Fuji-kun?" It was truly unusual to see her so cold to a person; Akina was normally very amicable and warmhearted. Still, I had a good idea as to why.

Fuji's smiling eyes turned to Akina and answered politely. "I enjoy being the top of my classes. However, why are you being so cold to Kikumaru-kun?" At least he got points for bluntness. Akina's eyes became harder.

"Kawaii ja nai," she replied softly. "Totally not cute."

Kikumaru seemed puzzled, and made a silly face. "Kawaii ja nai?" Akina crossed her arms and sort of pouted.

"Nope, not at all—you act so cute but you're _not_, not at all." Akina's naturally cute personality was probably what brought this on all the time—she couldn't stand fake cute. "Don't pretend to be someone you aren't! Be who you are, is that so weird?"

Fuji-kun's voice interjected softly:"This is the way Kikumaru-kun is. He may seem fake to you, but he's almost always like this. Most of the school would be shocked if he acted any other way." Akina turned away from the two.

"I still don't think it's cute."

Okay, so maybe Kikumaru-kun is just a little bit cute, but the way he acts is totally gross. He's unable to do anything and is SO not trustworthy. Ah well.

Afternoon classes sped through well enough, smoothly and without a hitch. Despite Ria's fears, History was alright enough—it's always rout memorization, in the States and in Japan. After school, we went to our apartment, sleek and the epitome of efficiency. Our rooms, connected by a door in between that was always left ajar, showed the warmer painted colors of light blue and pink in my and Ria's respective rooms. We changed—a cute graphic tee with a skirt and loose white socks for Ria, and a normal T-shirt and shorts for me. Slipping on our squeaky clean sneakers, we walked out the streets of Tokyo and over to the tallest building in sight. However, before we left, I looked in the mirror. Adjusting my moderate length hair so that it's straight lengths were knot-free, I dusted off all 167 centimeters of my body and straightened up, proud like and majestic.

The Next Day:

Homeroom the next day was easy, with Fuji-kun in place long before class and Kikumaru-san sliding into his seat right before class started. We chatted amongst ourselves, though I tried to ignore the fake cute persona in the seat behind mine. Apparently, both Fuji-kun and Kikumaru-san were regulars on the tennis team at Seishun Gakuen. Ria's begging and pleading finally made me acquiesce: we'd go see their next match on Thursday, when we didn't have anything to do after school.

Classes began to pass by, and right before English, Kikumaru-san poked me in the back. "Ne, ne, Akina-chan!" I turned around and stared at him.

"Who gave you permission to call me by my first name?" Kikumaru-san looked sort of uncomfortable before giving me a cookie-cutter answer that I had somehow already learned to be typical of him.

"Well, Ria-chan told me to call her by her first name and it's not really nice to keep calling you Suzuki-san if we're friends, ne? And also, you're from America so you're used to it, too, aren't you?" I sighed, and gave in. I had no energy to deal with people of his type.

"Fine, then I'll call you Eiji-kun." I was starting to learn that this person was not as shallow as a puddle formed in the rain. He grinned, as if to say that it was fine with him. I muttered under my breath, "I still don't think you're cute." Eiji-kun looked confused, but then straightened up.

"Do you have the English homework?" Of course I did, but I wasn't going to give it to him. "I just want to check my answers," he added quickly, but we both saw through the flimsy lie. I groaned, and slid my workbook to him. If I didn't already do this constantly with Ria, I would _not_ have been so lenient. "Don't do it again." Somehow, I knew it would happen again, and, like with Ria, I wouldn't be able to resist.

In PE, we once again played volleyball. This time, however, Ria and I played in makeshift uniforms: light gray sweats that sufficed to meet our gym teacher's standards for the moment. I served. _Wham_, the ball went sailing over the net with my overhand serve. As the ball came back, Ria tried to bump it back and it went over. We lasted longer than the other team thanks to our stamina, but if the volleyball had been standard size instead of the larger, lighter one, our hands would have been sore and red at the end of the period.

History went without worry—Eiji-kun again whimpered about notes, but thankfully this time it was to Fuji-kun. Ria and I were managing well enough, and I would occasionally daydream out the window: images of myself singing on a grand stage, internationally famous and touring the Asian countries. _How the girls back at my old school would envy me_, I smiled, and popped out of my dream, answering a question for a participation grade, if they existed in Japanese schools.

After school we again sat on our beds and did homework, listened to music, and emailed some girls we met playing volleyball today with our phones. Later, we got dressed in attire similar to yesterdays and again headed out.

In no time at all it was Thursday, and Akina and I were standing outside Court 3, where Fuji-kun would be playing against another school. We watched for a while, but got bored by Fuji-kun's steady returns against another capable player, with occasional tricks in which two adults stood by commenting with gasps and photographs (I think they were reporters). We wandered over to where Eiji-kun was starting, and were amused by Eiji-kun's acrobatics all around the court. His partner, Oishi-san, seemed patient and hard working, and with amazing satisfaction, we noted their amazing and perfect synchronization that left the other team exhausted and clearly beaten. Halfway through, we got bored again, possibly because of the photographer people's arrival at the court, and left with a wave and a nod at Fuji-kun, who was watching Eiji-kun's game, and well wishing to Eiji-kun behind his back.

We walked home quicker than usual and changed, heading out again for the studio.

Friday, all was well when we were peacefully sleep-I mean, studying in math when the teacher called on Ria to do a problem. Ria bravely stood, and walked up to the problem, fixing the board with her scrutinizing stare. I held my breath. Ria picked up the chalk, started writing, and finished the problem—it was correct. When she walked back, I held my hand under the desk for a high five. Score. Though of course she had not understood the math lesson, Ria and I had been working a chapter ahead the night before. Whether she'd remember it or not was another question. Satisfied with my work, I sat back in my chair as math finished up and English began.

_English Notes_

_Oi, write in English so we can tell the teacher we're practicing grammar._

**I don't want to; my kanji is really bad and I need practice. See how ugly these characters are?**

_Fine. Pass to Fuji-kun, too._

**Fuji-kun, did you see my wonderful math skills?**

_**Indeed. I was under the impression that you were struggling with math?**_

_I thought they were as bad as mine, nyan._

_No one can be as quite as bad as you, Eiji-kun. You don't pay attention during lessons, you don't do your homework…_

**I'm quite amazed that he's been passing, actually.**

_**Kikumaru-kun uses my notes.**_

_Hai, Fuji lends me his no—_

At this point, the teacher had noticed his three star students and his one slacker pupil were in fact _not_ paying attention to his lesson. Takanawa-sensei also knew who he had to pick on. I grabbed my notebook from Eiji-kun's desk and settled in to watch the horrendous episode to follow.

"Kikumaru! Answer the third question!" Now, of course, Eiji-kun didn't even have his workbook open. I wrote the answer down in English with explanations in neat kanji, and passed the notebook back.

"**Desu-po-sition. He had the happy desuposition.**" Eiji-kun's horrible pronunciation brought me into peals of laughter. Ria smiled under her breath, and Takanawa-sensei frowned, but he left Eiji off the hook—almost.

"Kikumaru, show me your notes after class."

The rest of the period was spent with Ria and I writing Eiji-kun's notes (since his would be worse than they should be), and Fuji-kun commenting lightly on the state of them. Oh, but we still passed notes.

_Kikumaru Eiji-kun! Write your own notes!_

_My notes are worse than yours though._

**Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be, whisper words of wisdom, let it be…**

_**The Beatles seemed to have sung Kikumaru-kun's anthem song.**_

_Do you even understand what I'm writing?_

_How can I if its all in English?_

**Ne, Akina, sensei will let it slide if you write your own notes on the margins, right?**

_**I do it often with Kikumaru-kun's papers.**_

_Copy my workbook answers, since you aren't listening to sensei talk, either._

In PE we moved on from Volleyball skirmishes to all out war. With skillful persuasion, Akina and I got the coach to pit us against one of the boys' teams. We won closely with a score of 15-13, and moved on to the next team and the next. However, where our teammates lacked the stamina, and the other team lacked the willpower, I felt high, and oftentimes spiked the ball with a hurried excitement. The rest of the class watched us as the girls rooted and the guys hooted. Finally, we were up against Eiji-kun and Fuji-kun's team.

I knew at once that we would lose. From the way Fuji-kun, calm as ever, and Eiji-kun, hyper as ever, looked, compared to the sweaty, tired, altogether exhausted girl's team, I knew we were lucky to have gotten this far and would be lucky to ever get this far again. Still, I was brave. Akina served, and I shouted out commands. "Mariko-chan, up!" I hit it forward, and she hit it over the net. Kaito-kun hit it back, and I faltered, losing us the point. The rest of the game continued like this. We'd put up an impressive rally but in the end, one of the opposing team would hit it over and we'd miss it by an inch. I noticed the careful positioning that the boy's team had in their haphazard formation. Eiji-kun would always get the hardest to get balls, Fuji-kun would hit most of the back row, and let one of the stronger players take over. We lost badly, 23-11, but our team had fun all the same.

Lunch, Eiji-kun had detention and Akina was bailing him out. Fuji-kun and I sat, alone but in each other's company.

"That's quite an interesting way you're holding those chopsticks." I looked down at my hands, which were holding the chopsticks the way I had always done.

"What's so strange about them?"

"Well, see, you're supposed to hold them separated against each other, instead of rubbing them together the way you are." I tried, but failed. Shrugging, I resumed eating my bento. After a while, I made a casual observation as well.

"What color are your eyes?" Fuji-kun's smiling face covered his eyes in a scarily efficient way. I had never truly noticed it, but he seemed to be the only one in Japan who had such small eyes, to the point where they just weren't… visible. Another question dawned on me as I processed my thoughts. "How do you even _see_?"

"My eyes are blue, and I see by having light rays reflected into my eyes." Fuji-kun, smiling, was being a wiseass, something that often had me pulling the ends of my hair out.

"Well go figure, because I thought you had light coming out of those tiny eyes of yours." My dry remark seemed to make his smile widen, and that was the end of the Eye discussion. We conversed about the weather ("When will you come to see our next match?" Fuji-kun asked. "Most likely, never again," was my reply), and talked a bit about classes, or rather, the note passing within classes. It was a little while before an extremely tall person with spiky black hair and thick rimmed glasses walked up to me.

"Ii Data," he said as he opened a small black notebook. "Suzuki Ria, it's a pleasure to meet you, I am Sadaharu Inui." He scribbled something before turning to Fuji-kun. "I have a juice I want you to try out, if you would?" I peered onto the tabletop, since Sadaharu-san had pulled out a dark, thick, greenish liquid. I felt a chill go down my spine when Fuji-kun replied with a smile and drank it in one gulp.

"The flavor is a bit weaker than last time, Inui-kun," he said, politely handing the glass to the curious onlooker, who scribbled some more in his notebook. "As usual," he muttered under his breath, "Out of the tested people, only Fuji-kun willingly drank it and had no reaction." I blinked and rubbed my eyes, sure I had seen a malicious glint reflected in his glasses. As he walked away, both Fuji-kun and I could faintly hear his last sentiment. "If only I could get Tezuka-buchou to test it…"

I stared straight at the smiling Fuji-kun. "What," I began, "was that?"

"That's not very nice, Ria-chan. That was Inui-kun, since you obviously didn't hear his introduction." I was speechless in my disbelief. "And if you were wondering about that drink, I have no idea. He hasn't named it yet, but it is probably a new item on the menu for tennis training." I shuddered and went on to eat some fruit. I would never, ever, _ever_, drink anything like that.

The next day, I walked into class, sitting down and ready to pass notes. I was brimming with excitement, which was peculiar for a Monday. However, I had to wait through Math, until English, where Sensei seemed to have allowed Eiji-kun to pass notes with us, seeing as Fuji-kun, Akina, or I would help him along (grade-wise. His English was HORRIBLE). Actually, it was quite amusing the way Akina acted. She pretended to hate Eiji-kun, but I could see that it was turning into a "gosh you are way too immature," kind of hate, compared to an "I hate fakers like you," kind of hate, which was totally different. Anyway, Akina started passing notes as soon as we got our workbooks out.

_English Notes-_

_Eiji-kun! Work on your notes!_

_It's hard!_

_You have to concentrate!_

**Woah, Akina, I cannot tell who is who! Your handwritings are too similar.**

_**I can tell the difference.**_

**I can't. Change it.**

_What would we do?_

_Yeah, what would we do?_

_**I can no longer tell the difference.**_

_[How about I bracket my writing?]_

_I'll forget to do anything, so I'll just do nothing._

_[Brackets are cute.]_

**Maybe this will work.**

_**Maybe not.**_

**Akina: **To my regret, that blockheaded fool of a boy, Eiji-kun, did not shape up at all to improve himself at English. Sensei flashed a pleading look at me, probably because he knew I was the only one to get this slob into a somewhat hardy English speaker. Fuji-kun and Ria were _much_ too soft. However, I didn't really feel like it. I had tutored a bit in the United States but had no interest in it—really; I only tutored Ria, who was absolutely horrible in Math and Social Studies/History. After Elective (alternating every other day with Physical Education), Cooking and Baking, we brought our spoils of the day to the classroom to grab our bentos. There we met with Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun, who had just come back from their electives. We walked and talked over to our lunch table, where it was bright, sunny, and warm, albeit the wind being a bit harsh.

**Akina:** However, that day was special for another reason. Although it would have seemed insignificant to some, two extremely important events happened. The trigger was that Ria had remedial lessons. This was an unimportant necessity that made the gears start to turn.

"Pleeeease?" Ria's wheedling voice made me wince in pain. The whines were unbearable. I couldn't keep being soft with her, but I couldn't turn my heart to stone, either.

"I'll stay after, but I will not help you." I snapped out at Ria in my frustration, but she didn't notice. Gleefully shouting about success in all endeavors or something of the sort, she ran around in circles. Thank goodness it was during our lunch break. However, Ria soon turned around at me again, trying to cajole me into doing yet another thing for her. I spoke before she could. "You get my notes, my study sheet, and a quiet library where Sensei and I will lock you in. Nothing else until the hour is over." She pouted angrily, racking her archives for a loophole she could create. There was none.

And so, I went on later to sit outside, thinking of reading a book but finding the sunlight too bright for me to bear. I put on my sunglasses, covered my skin with suntan lotion, pulled up my hoodie, and decided to walk around and watch the tennis team. After all, I knew two of the regulars. Maybe some other person could explain why tennis was so interesting.

"I, Horio, with two years of tennis experience, will now explain what Kikumaru-sempai is doing!" This strange and energetic first year had come up to me and asked what I was doing, staring at Eiji-kun with a vicious squint (not that he could see my eyes directly), and a frown on my face. When I admitted to not understanding the point of tennis, he dropped his jaw and puffed his chest out, proud and eager to share his expertise with me.

"You see, Inui-sempai has the regulars doing endurance training, and Kikumaru-sempai has the worst among them." Looking closely, I could not tell the difference. They had all been running at a break neck speed for several minutes, the last one always running the fastest until he was no longer last. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed Kikumaru was sweating a bit more than the others, if only by a miniscule amount. The brash Horio-kun must have noticed my realization, for he added shortly after, "they're wearing weights as well." Horio-kun continued to spout information when I chose to ask a few questions.

"Who's that one over there? He's smaller than the rest." My tennis instructor of sorts began to talk with an even _more_ presumptuous grin on his face. "That's Ryoma-kun." Apparently, he was the only first year to ever make it onto the regulars, was a tennis _genius_, and had won several competitions in the United States. Ah. I filed this piece of information in the back of my head. This kid knew English.

I pointed out more and more of the regulars until I had a rough understanding of the team as a whole. Inui-san was the helper Ria told me about (though she seemed to shudder at the thought of him). Kaidoh-san was a fearsome and snakelike guy, evil and a terror to anyone who stood in his path. Momoshiro-san was a laidback and easy going guy, the natural enemy of aforementioned viper male. Oishi-san, the ever worrying mother hen of the group, kind and tennis partner to Eiji-kun (I recognized his face after the background story Horio-kun gave me), and Tezuka-san, the fierce and hardworking captain of the team, unbeatable and loaded with super-secret techniques. I wondered afterwards if I should have trusted a first year with all this information, but it was the best I could get, and on the surface at least, it looked authentic.

Shortly after the hour, tennis practice was well underway, and I experienced something strange. Inui-san had separated the regulars into divisions where they would practice against one another in strange drills, taking turns playing with Tezuka-buchou. From time to time, Inui-san would take out a vile-colored liquid and shake it at the regulars, increasing their playing ability by unforeseen amounts. As Horio-kun simply shuddered when I asked him about it, I assumed it was simply something that they took before a game to make them have more energy, like Red Bull.

In any case, it was Eiji-kun's turn to play a one set match against Tezuka-buchou. Though it was his service game (an advantage from what Horio-kun told me), Eiji-kun had lost the first three points already. It was forty-love and a strange transformation took place. It happened very quickly, though in my mind, very slowly. First, Inui-san's glasses seemed to glint in the shade of the court's resting area, with a liquid the color purple, wait, no, green with purple bits in it. An electric sort of shudder seemed to go down Eiji-kun's spine, and he stiffened with resolve. He spun his racket, and set in the first serious stance I had ever witness him having. His moves were dizzying and fleet footed, and he seemed sure of himself and 'in tune' with his surroundings.

He lost, but I fell in love.

It started raining shortly after, while Oishi-san was playing with Tezuka-buchou. I had hardly noticed, keeping my eyes on Eiji-kun the rest of the time, wishing he would revert back to his serious self. However, when I felt the plink-plink of the cold raindrops, I looked into the sky to have a particularly fat glob fall into my eyes, as I had taken off the sunglasses to watch Eiji-kun more closely. I looked back at the tennis court, at Eiji-kun, who still looked ill after drinking the vile concoction, and ran for shelter. Ria was waiting impatiently for me at the door.

"That was terror, studying all by myself. And now, we have to walk home, too, because I didn't bring my bus pass!" I said nothing at the fact that I had my own pass with me at all times. I pulled out the umbrella I had in my bag, laughed, and opened it up. We started ambling off at a leisurely pace, enjoying the cooler weather, when we heard a high, girlish voice call out to us.

"Wait up!"

That's when we realized Fuji-kun lived in the same direction as us. Of course, Ria made us stop, and, as he had a larger umbrella, Fuji-kun shared with Ria so I could have my own again. If we were in the US, I would have teased Ria about that particular scene until kingdom come. However, as Fuji-kun was our friend, I refrained from such an act. We walked a bit more but soon after, Fuji-kun seemed to bow to us in a polite, humorous way and said goodbye, walking in the other direction. Ria and I waved, but then resumed walking.

Though you may ask why this event was as important as my falling in love with the dunce head Eiji-kun, it was because afterwards, we began to stay after school more. I don't know what Ria said to Uncle and Aunt to make them acquiesce to our pleas, but afterwards, we'd study outside for two hours until tennis practice was over, I, watching for Eiji-kun's serious appearance again (not that I saw it), and Ria, not complaining for she didn't mind walking home anymore. This was particularly amazing as I could cram more information into her head at once and watch in amazement as none of it fell out.

Much to my dismay, I never saw Eiji-kun grow serious again. It seemed as if his only self was his crazy, hyper, airheaded personality. I truly could not wrap my mind around it, as I was waiting for the advent of the Eiji-kun I saw just a few weeks past.

This time, when Ria and I went home, we changed immediately and left. Homework wasn't finished yet butwe would have enough time to do it at night. Ria was tense but excited, full of energy to work hard and get the first huge hurdle over with. It seemed that her 164 centimeters were bursting with electricity, her dark brown hair bobbed neatly and pinned with a white beret.

As we have not mentioned much about it before, it occurs to me that you, the reader, know very little about who Ria and I are and what our out of school lives consist of. I apologize, as I realize you do not understand what we do that requires seeking out the tallest building in Tokyo—Tokyo Tower.

That day, as I mentioned, Ria was full of energy and ready to go, and so, we went out again into the streets of Tokyo, aiming for the Tower, but veering off a few blocks ahead to go into a studio. Now, the studio, though small in relative terms, was six stories high and the model of Japanese Businesses. Still, it was to none of these floors we would go. Instead, we boarded the elevator and headed down to the B2 level, where we would meet Yonemura-san, Ria's agent.

I ascended into the B1 level and began to warm up myself. I couldn't quite focus on my warm-ups, but soon, as I got ready, I began absorbed in my own dances, and not in Ria's. You see, Ria and I were both trained in dance from a young age, for Uncle and Aunt own and run Suzuki Corporation, the leading classical dance/entertainment business in Japan. That's also who Ria and I grew up in the United States. We spent all of our summers in Japan, of course, learning and cultivating our skills, but the rest of the time was spent in Nevada, studying at vocational schools for dance. Still, as the daughter of Suzuki Corp's Executives, Ria had to debut as a singer as well, though not through her own choice. She would much rather spend her time dancing, and I would much rather spend my time singing. Still, it is quite enough that we both get to do what we want to some extent.

After spending some time with my instructor—this week we were working on traditional dance from the Ukraine—I thanked her and left, heading up another level to the lobby. There, I boarded a van with Yonemura-san, Ria having gone ahead to prepare onstage. As we arrived, she waved to me, and I walked over to where she stood by a techie person. She turned back to talk to him about lighting, absorbed in all preparations but still acutely aware of everything. When she finished, she and I sat at the edge of the stage. It was the last thing she had to do, and now she only had to wait. We retired to her dressing room after a while, and began jabbering.

"I hope you'll watch the entire set, even if you have heard most of it already." Ria said worriedly.

"Of course I'll stay," I promised, interested in what Suzuki Corp. was throwing out into the world. "I can hardly wait."

Showtime—I was sitting in the front row at the left of the hall, right where the stage jutted out so Ria could walk down it. The lights dimmed, and a heavy baseline lined the first song of the set—_Release_. How many times had I heard this in the past few months? During the elongated introduction, Ria began to speak.

"Hey, thanks for coming to the debut of RAYS everyone! I know you probably came because _Legend_ endorsed this concert, but I hope you'll find it worthwhile!" _Legend_ was a four person boy band that Uncle found in a talent search. The media smothers them with its love, but still _Legend_ remains a down to earth group of fun-loving people. Now, the song was starting.

_I never knew, knew what I was missing,_

_Until I glimpsed a sight of you,_

_One look and I was hooked on race-ing,_

_finding that way, to capture you._

_Still I, got caught in your web,_

_Lost in your charm, get out of my head,_

_Won't I, live to tell the tale,_

_Your enchantment takes me outta this world~_

_Let's go on, just hold on, won't you come,_

_Come, dance with me?_

_I'm trapped in my chrysalis,_

_Searching for the way to get out of this bind_

_Just help, hear my plea, it's you I need…._

_Release Me._

I watched as Ria moved onto the next song. In the bright stage lights, I watched her short black dress and clearly visible headset, a butterfly design on the side. She wore long black gloves, and I noticed her hair was down to her shoulders, longer than I remembered them to be last. The layers they were in accentuated her small face and made her look mature; the perfect look for tonight.

As I listened to the rest of the set, I found myself awed by how good Ria's vocal control had become. Where she once struggled for air after singing a few bars, she now stood gracefully, chest heaving slightly but a satisfied smile on her face. _How I wish I could do that_. The thought pushed its way in my brain and I struggled to push it out. The little angel in my brain started to fight actively against the little devil that reigned at the moment. Miss Angel Akina won momentarily, but not before Devil Akina left a lingering thought in my head. _I'd have so much fun up there…_

After the set was almost finished, I knew I was in for a treat.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, to thank you for coming to the RAYS concert, I arranged something with Kaito-kun…" Her words were drowned in the back few rows squealing with delight. Shinseiki Kaito was the guitarist of _Legend_ and the leader of the band, not to mention a good friend of ours. When the screams died down, Ria continued. "Please welcome _Legend_ in a special duet version of _Release_!" The song started up, an interesting mix of the two band styles.

After the concert, I stayed in my seat, listening to the cacophony of schoolgirls leaving the hall. I, along with the front two rows of the auditorium, was ushered to the backstage area, where we were left alone to wander and socialize with the band members and techies. I felt sort of bad that because of me, one girl would not be able to do this, but looking at the squealing fans, I changed my mind. Some were devoted to _Legend_ and creepy. I was used to them. Still, others vowed to follow RAYS forever—in a stalkerish way. Those, I wasn't really used to. I spotted Ria coming, and went over to congratulate her. She had changed back into normal clothes and was walking back to greet the stalkers and the creeps. We chattered eagerly about the highlights of the evening, and before I went home, I reminded her to return soon. It was almost 10 o'clock and we hadn't had any homework done. I wondered if Sensei would forgive us.

The next day, Ria and I were falling asleep in class. After the concert, Ria couldn't focus and I had to teach her, resulting in our clocking out at 2 AM. Not. A. Good. Idea. Eiji-kun snickered and Fuji-kun had a freaky, sadistic smile on his face as he watched Sensei send us outside. We stood silently for a while, but then fell asleep there. It would have been almost comforting had we not almost fallen over, each a number of times, as we rocked on the balls of our feet.

Lunch time came and we weren't hungry. We were tired. Ria and I were sleeping on a lunch table indoors (Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun redirected us inside since it was raining, not that we'd have noticed), when a few girls approached us. "Ria-chan!" They called out with their false, cheery voices. I groaned and went back to sleep while Ria sat up and rubbed her sleepy eyes.

"Hello," was her cool but cheerful reply. She looked at them, waiting for something.

"We were at your concert last night—we're really big fans of _Legend_, and now we're really big fans of RAYS, too! You did a great job." One of the girls, presumably the ringleader, spoke, offering the information in a fangirlish manner.

"Oh, thanks! I'm really glad you came to support me." Ria's voice was pleased, glad for her newly established fandom.

"The thing is—" The girl broke off, hesitating. Then, she continued. "We want tickets to the next _Legend_ concert but we can't afford really good seats. Can you pull a few strings for us?" I groaned. This was never good.

"Sorry, I can't. Those seats support _Legend_ and all that." Ria kept her nonchalant air, but was now on guard about these people and the words they were saying. The girl began to speak angrily, but Fuji-kun interrupted.

"I'm sorry, Takamura-san, but both Ria-chan and Akina-chan are tired, and it looks like you're bothering them both." At last, someone who understood! As they left in a huff, Ria and I went back to sleep for about a minute before the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch and the beginning of Physical Education.

After the end of PE, we decided to go to the nurse's office and sleep instead, us being dead on our feet, and thankfully, were not bothered until much later.

**I re-uploaded this with ~*~ marks instead of a bar (actually, they're still there, I can't get rid of them), because the bar does not appear in FFnet –tear-**

**I'd like to thank DreamsRMyLife for being such an amazing beta reader… Not only for her sharp eyes and impeccable grammar skills, but also for her amazing insight regarding plot and my strange, ever-evolving writing style.**

**Until next time~ JuniperScaymoore**


	2. Chapter 2

I opened my eyes at the sound of a rustling noise. The world was coming into focus from a groggy, disoriented blur into a sharp, headache-pierced clarity. The first thing I saw was Kikumaru Eiji.

**Apparently, formatting failed last time, so I'll try something different instead of a bar. I will pop in a disclaimer, and then get on with the story (in Akina's PoV from now on).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Prince of Tennis, commonly referred to as PoT. I do not own pot either. That is illegal. Not that I'd do it if it were legal. Does the cast of PoT do pot? Anyways…**

I'm not joking. Neither was I hallucinating. Eiji-kun had stuck his face out in front of my sleeping figure and was vigorously poking me in the temple, hence the headache. In the second or two it took me to register what had happened, I screamed. Eiji-kun jumped back, agile as always and with a smile on his face, though to my satisfaction that grin was accompanied by a grimace from my shriek. Ria rose out of the cot to the left, the webs of sleep still caught on her face. Fuji, amused as always, sat on a stool at the foot of Ria's cot.

By now, my shrieking had stopped and my heart had stopped doing a 70 mph dance. Turning on Eiji-kun, I began to scold him madly. "Eiji-kun! Do you realize you could have given me a heart attack? Don't mess with me, or **I'll kill you**!" It was probably a good thing this threat was in English. I didn't really mean it, but Eiji-kun would have given me an even more alarmed and puppy eyed look than the one he showed me now. _How cute,_ I thought. _I hate his cute._

Softly, Fuji-kun's voice interrupted the bubble of thought I was in. "We just wanted to wake you guys up so you wouldn't spend the night here." His smiling face irked me, but Ria was beaming fondly at her friend, halfway-energized and ready to stretch her legs anyway.

"Alright, let's go home," I said, consenting to at least go home and sleep more. I grabbed my bags and left with the rest of them.

On the way back, Eiji-kun kept jumping around and asking silly questions with a stupid expression on his face. _If only he wasn't here,_ I thought, but then remembered—Eiji-kun usually _wasn't_ here! I inquired about it, but Eiji-kun said he was going to Fuji-kun's house to study. Perhaps in a moment of stupidity, or in a moment of excessive fun, Ria giggled.

"Why don't you guys come over to our house and study?" Her innocent question provoked a snort from me.

"Yeah, and Fuji-kun could teach you, Ria, while I actually get some work done!" Fuji-kun seemed to think about this, engulfed in thought for a few seconds before smiling with that strange, closed-eyelids method.

"Well then, if you'll have us."

I realized then that he had tricked me into allowing them over. What a troublesome group of friends I had! After reaching the apartment, I let us all in and let the boys call their homes as Ria and I changed into more comfortable clothing. Our living quarters were vast for the normal apartment standards. Indeed, we were on the top two floors of the 10 story apartment building. It was a very modernized home, with a sleek, stainless steel kitchen, a clean living room with a wide screen TV, and another floor of open space (with beautiful hardwood floors, in case you were wondering), and beanie bags—five, in fact, as Ria would change colors depending on her mood. Here, we each grabbed a cushion and got to work. We were in a circle, Eiji-kun opposite me, Ria to my right, and Fuji-kun on my left. I read quietly after completing my homework, absorbing information from my additional studies as best I could. For the most part, it was a peaceful arrangement, as I couldn't hear the whining of either of Fuji-kun's pupils with my iPod on. After an hour or so, I looked up and paused the song.

"So? What have you gotten done?" My innocent question made Fuji-kun look up with a pained expression on his face. I smiled, then pulled both Eiji-kun and Ria's textbooks up to me. "Eiji-kun, you should know this grammar rule, it's all Sensei's been talking about in English… oh wait, you don't pay attention. Here." I scribbled an example and passed it back. "Ria, know these dates for the Heian period, Sensei hinted it'd be on the next test. Ignore this part, because no matter how interesting it is it wasn't monumental in Japan's development, but know why this is actually called the Nine Years War." I passed that one back as well before looking at Fuji-kun. "No matter how easy it is for you, know that it's a lot harder for them! Goodness, if anyone else had your abilities, I'd be afraid." I went back to my book.

"Akina's really good at studying," Ria explained to Fuji-kun. "When most people's attentions start to wander, she forces herself back on track. That's how she's so smart." I supposed that was more or less the truth. If I removed all the attention-wandering points of Ria's studying time, she and I would be on the same level. Smiling at the compliment, I pressed play on my iPod and started humming.

At ten to six, my iPod alarm went off and I stopped reading. Cleaning up my books, notes, and writing accessories, I placed all of my school belongings in a corner, neat and ready for the next day. I brushed off my jeans and stopped the frustrated trio from their work. "Come on, let's have dinner." Eiji-kun immediately stopped his tortured look and bounced back into the more familiar, hyper Eiji-kun I knew. Pushing our guests to the barstools at the island of our kitchen, Ria and I got to work, quickly dumping meat, vegetables, and assorted foods into a boiling pot of water. In a few minutes, everything was done. "Dinner is served!"

I guess people normally eat dinner later, because neither Fuji-kun nor Eiji-kun ate as much as I thought they would, but after a while, Ria and I, who were ravenous, were done.

"It's a rare occasion when you two eat more than the two of us." Fuji-kun's smiling eyes seemed to mock us, but Ria was fine with it.

"We have high metabolisms and we exercise constantly. If we're not eating right, we won't have the stamina. You guys are athletes, you should know, right?" Her gentle chiding made me laugh—it wasn't often Ria played the mother's role.

Just then, I caught Eiji-kun looking down in his lap. I asked him about it, and he sheepishly pulled out his cell phone. "Sorry, I was texting my sister."

Ria, not skipping a beat, pulled out her own cell, and prompted Eiji-kun for his number. Fuji-kun pulled out his phone as well, and both Ria and I put his number in. I shyly keyed in Eiji-kun's number, trying to stay cool, and, having accomplished that to the best of my ability, closed my phone. It had taken but a few moments, so we continued onwards with our conversation. After about half an hour, the sky was in twilight mode, and Fuji-kun got up to leave. Perfect. He always did have impeccable timing, sometimes to the point of frustration. Today however, it was nice. Ria began to shoo Eiji-kun out with him, and I went upstairs to get my bag. Ria, ready to leave, had taken her iPod as well and we went outside with the boys, locking the door behind us.

"Ne, ne, Ria-chan, why are you guys leaving too?" Eiji-kun's probing question brought a smirk to my face.

"Don't you know Ria's an idol now? She has to do all sorts of work and practices, even on the week days." I metaphorically puffed up, the way I always did when boasting of Ria. I loved her, and was so proud of her accomplishments.

"Akina! Stop that! What of you?" Now, it was my turn to blush as Ria's talkative side emerged. "Akina normally goes to the studio like me, but once every two weeks, she goes to a special language tutor. She already speaks English, so she's learning Korean and German and Japanese right now. She's going there now."

I began to fuss, as it glorified me in a way that wasn't suited towards me, but at this point, we had no more time together. Ria went down one side of the road, and I turned to walk the other. This was also the direction Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun headed down. I said a final goodbye to Ria, and began a conversation with Fuji-kun, the intelligent one of the duo. Eiji-kun would butt in from time to time, but in his playful and fun mode, I had no interest. After a few minutes though, I turned down another street and left the boys to themselves.

A few days later, Ria and I were busily texting our friends. Fuji-kun was texting Ria and I was texting Eiji-kun. Why did I get the fool? Perhaps because I didn't want Ria's grammar to deteriorate with all the slang terms Eiji-kun was using! I giggled as I thought of just one example. Ria was messaging Eiji-kun on our way home from school when she asked me, "Why is Eiji-kun's stomach in a bad condition?" I started laughing because I had no idea what she was talking about, but when it seemed like she was actually serious, I took a look.

"Hara heta?" I broke out into even more raucous laughter. "Why, he's hungry!" Wouldn't you laugh as well? What kind of person would say that in a text message?

So there I was, laying on my bed and messaging people (Eiji-kun), and Ria was also laying on my bed (for reasons unknown), messaging people (Fuji-kun), when suddenly, she turned to me and grinned.

"Akina, we aren't doing anything on the xxth, are we?" I looked up at her and shook my head, a puzzled look on my face. Ria smiled. "Alright, then it's settled. On that day, I'm going to a festival, and you and Eiji-kun and Fuji-kun will come with me!"

"Ria, are you _insane_? You can't possibly go out in public with two _guys_, the media will kill you!"

"I can wear one of those mask things, right? You should, too, because the press will see you and wonder, but don't worry so much! I've yet to see a real Japanese festival, and Fuji-kun told me about this one, so I'm determined to see it!" Ria took my speechlessness as acceptance, and smiled. "Alright, then it's settled. Two weeks from now, we're going to that festival!"

The next two weeks passed by so slowly that for all my nerves, I was a bit relieved when the day finally came. Eiji-kun and Ria shared a hyperactive enthusiasm for it while Fuji-kun just smiled and went along with it. However, I knew better: the evil mastermind behind it all was really Fuji-kun, sly as a fox.

That night, we met Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun outside the barricaded streets of the busy night markets that the festival was centered around. Ria wore a light pink yukata with flower patterns near her feet. I wore one of the same design, but in a light blue color. My language teacher had helped us put it on, as well as find the masks Ria and I wore. With her fox and my cat, we looked both adorable and enigmatic at the same time. Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun soon found us and revealed themselves. It might seem a bit corny, but when I saw Eiji-kun in a simple blue T-Shirt and jeans, he looked so incredibly cool, I could completely justify the Kikumaru Eiji faction of the Seigaku Tennis Team fanclub. Ah, don't worry a bit, _that_ delusion only lasted a second. After he opened his mouth, Eiji-kun was simply my crazy, whacky friend… the antithesis of my cool, determined crush.

I can't really say I minded, after all it was better this way. I had no time for things like love; taking care of Ria was my top priority. One of us had to have a stable head, and that would _not_ be Ria!

Ria at once began to animatedly chatter with Fuji-kun. She had always been more attached to Fuji-kun, and so, as they walked down the street, holding hands, I realized what an adorable couple they made.

"Oi, Akina-chan, hold my hand so we don't get separated like we did from Fuji-kun and Ria-chan, okay?" Eiji-kun's innocence gave me a huge shock, and I tentatively took his hand…

_da-dump_

I blinked, shook my head, and tried to refocus. Eiji-kun was right, in my day dreaming, we _had_ lost Fuji-kun and Ria! I'm such an idiot. Well, best make the best of things.

"Ne, ne, Akina-chan, let's go over there!" Without warning, Eiji-kun dragged me over to a goldfish scooping station where he flicked a 100 yen coin at me. "I'll race you!"

I grinned beneath my cat mask. Although I had never played before, I felt the adrenaline pump through my blood. "**Bring it!**"

After a minute or two, I was really regretting my decision to even challenge the king of agility and skill, Eiji-kun. I had broken countless _poi,_ or paper scoopers, while Eiji-kun already had three goldfish. I gave an angry cry and gave up. "**Forget this!**" My frustration showed in my tone, and Eiji-kun understood.

"Ano, Akina-chan, it's alright, we can just go elsewhere…" His timid reply was immediately shot down by my refusal. The station manager gave Eiji-kun a sympathetic look, but Eiji-kun simply sighed and consented to one more game. Squatting down next to me, he gave up one more 100 yen coin. I took the poi from the manager, and was prepared to spear the goldfish if necessary, but Eiji-kun gripped my hand with his, adjusting the grip, and leaned over my shoulder. "Okay, you're gonna have to wait for the goldfish to pass over here… but don't wait to long, because by then Fish-san will have passed already. Ok, and now…" His sudden, fluid motion tossed a fish in the air and smacked it into my bucket, breaking the poi in the process. However, the objective was met. My face lit up in a smile, and Eiji-kun relaxed his grip.

"Hey, do you want to trade your goldfish for a medaka fish?" The shopkeeper asked, seemingly pleased with the fact that we would soon move on to another station. "You can trade the three you have and the one your girlfriend has for another fish." At the word _girlfriend_, Eiji-kun jumped back from me, bumping into another person in the process. I blushed heavily.

"Ah, we're not going out!" I hastily corrected her, standing up, my precious fish in hand. Eiji-kun quickly agreed, but then opened his mouth to say something quite different.

"Ano… but can we still have that fish?"

An hour later, we crowded in a nearby park, leaning on the trunk of a sturdy tree to avoid sitting on the wilted cherry blossoms from the month before, and chatted amongst ourselves. I gingerly carried the fish in my hand, as well as the fan I had won fairly from a dunk tank station. In my sandals, I was nearly the same height as Eiji-kun in his sneakers, and as we waited for the hanabi display, the adrenaline from before still surged in my veins. My hyperness seemed to overwhelm Eiji-kun, who, like a small puppy, had worn himself out earlier on and was now just peacefully agreeing to most of what I said. I finished one topic and was about to start another when suddenly, the fireworks went off. Eiji-kun opened his wide eyes towards the sky, and I did likewise, extremely happy that tonight was even possible. Although I act like an adult, or try to most of the time, it's nice to be a kid every once in a while.

Later, when we met up with Ria and Fuji-kun, I could see Ria was well worn out, so I ran up to meet with her, loosening myself from Eiji-kun's hand. However, upon Fuji-kun's insistence to walk us back, and Eiji-kun's tagalong nature, I ended up walking with Eiji-kun again, so as to not feel like a third wheel in the Fuji-Ria pair. Alright. I could deal with that.

After reaching our apartment, we said goodbye to Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun and went inside. We undid each other's yukatas, changed into our pajamas, and hit the sack.

The next morning was a Saturday, but we still had to get up early! I walked Ria to the studio, where she was finishing the story for the music video of "Release Me" with _Legend_. Normally, the music video for her debut song would have been up _months_ in advance, but because she had done loads of promo work, billboards, talk shows, you name it, they decided to push back the release for this video back a few months. It wasn't that bad, I mean, although she had already had her debut concert, "Release Me" had only been broadcasted that one time. The radio releases, as well as the official album, would be available next week, which is why today she not only had to finish her recording, but handle several press conferences with the rest of RAYS. For today, I could stay with Ria.

"Um, hey." I looked to my left and saw one of Ria's band mates. I didn't really know him that well; in fact, I didn't know any of Ria's band members by name, and here was one of them…

"Hi." My greeting was tentative, but he seemed to take it as an invitation to speak. Oh goodness. I hoped he would introduce himself quickly before I'd have to ask who he was. That would be terribly rude, wouldn't it?

"Akiyama Haru. You are…?"

"Suzuki Akina. It's nice to know Ria's band members, I suppose I really should have done this ages ago. I'm Ria's cousin, by the way." My final statement seemed to resolve the confused face he originally had, and he soon continued on.

"Ah. I had seen you walk in with Ria-chan many times before but she never formally introduced you so I guess I wanted to introduce myself first." What a nice guy. He was about five centimeters taller than I was, which resulted in the pleasant experience of looking up at a person instead of looking down or at near eye level. However, I did find it a bit peculiar that he didn't simply ask Ria to introduce us, as that was the normal thing to do.

We chatted for a little bit but eventually, he had to go film his part in the music video, and I had to go to my own dance practice. I watched him for a bit, but then caught his eye and mouthed, _I have to go_. He nodded and smiled. As I left, I saw another band member pat Akiyama-san on the back… What a strange group! As I quietly pattered down the steps of my building, I pondered this. Well, at least Ria would have friendly band mates to accompany her in what she jokingly called her "musical journey" this morning.

My teacher wasn't in the studio when I arrived, so I quietly warmed up while singing a random tune.

"_I've never been so caught up in life until I met you… Your vibrant eyes made me, love you. So as I sing this song, know that we will always belong, together, forever, cousins yet sisters forever…"_

I stretched and inhaled deeply, using my diaphragm and expanding my lungs out to maximize my air.

"_Although this is a secret, secretly I envy you, envy the way you live my dream. I know you envy me, because really, I am living your dream as well. Don't worry, one day I will break free and we can sing in harmony."_

I stopped humming as it seemed like my teacher wasn't really coming at all. I didn't really mind, my hip-hop instructor was a whimsical fool who was more often found flirting with the girls in our building than he was found actually teaching. I put on a Korean hip-hop song and began dancing along, every move perfectly in sync with the music videos. After I had packed up and gotten ready to leave, I was greeted by my teacher, who was leaning against the wall and pretending as if he had been there all along.

"Lovely song." His greeting, as always, was a stick in the mud to my relaxed mood. "Also, you need to make your moves pop more. You can't be a graceful Japanese _geisha_ if you are a Korean hip-hop star." His gritty yellow teeth, stained from numerous cigarettes, grinned in his laid-back instruction. I smiled and nodded back at him, before leaving. Tomorrow was ballet, and the day after, another traditional dance from somewhere else around the world. I wouldn't have to see my dirty Casanova of a teacher until next week.

It wasn't as if I hated him or anything, his habits just appalled me like nothing else. He was like that mystery guy that operated in bars and could somehow understand the drunkard's troubles. Yeah, I could imagine him doing that. As far as I knew, he didn't do anything else in this building except instruct me-that is, if you could even call it instruction.

I got upstairs and put away my duffel bag in the locker room where SuzuC's students could temporarily keep their belongings. However, before I left, I changed into something nicer. I didn't want to go to my beloved cousin's press conference looking like a slob, even if the staff would pay no attention to me either way. I wore a light blue graphic tee with a short black skirt and gothic gloves. I had just gotten the gloves the other day and was obsessed with them like you would not believe. I brushed my hair obsessively and pinned part of it away so it wouldn't fall in my eyes, and left. Even a pragmatic and prune of a girl like me is still a girl, so why wouldn't I worry about my appearance?

I caught up with Ria in the front lobby just as RAYS was about to leave for their conference. High fiving Ria and greeting Yonemura-san, I got in the van after Ria and sat in the middle row. Yonemura-san sat shotgun with the driver, and the keyboardist, drummer, and bassist got into the third row—leaving one space for Akiyama-san to sit next to me.

"We just keep meeting up with each other, don't we?" I joked as he sat down next to me, but he didn't seem to take a joke from that. Instead, he changed the topic to whether or not I was at the concert and whether or not I enjoyed it, things like that. That's when Ria joined in the conversation, adding that, of course I had been to the concert, she had also gone backstage.

"Haru, you don't really notice RAYS's devoted fan girls, huh," the bassist teased. At Akiyama-san's blush, I changed the conversation to one between me and the bassist, Koizumi Hayato, about his background and such. ("Just call me Hayato," was his firm reply when I addressed him as Koizumi-san.)

"You're very lucky," Hayato-kun said, "Ria-chan is a gifted guitarist, and she's so much fun to be around." I laughed, agreeing with at least part of that statement.

"Ria? No way, this girl's absolutely useless, the only way she'd be gifted would be if everyone else with a moderate amount of musical talent died! It's you guys, especially Akiyama-san, that make her appear so 'gifted'." Ria punched me and pretended to be offended, since she knew I wasn't really insulting her.

"It's true though," she agreed, "There's a reason RAYS is RAYS… if it were just 'RIA', then none of us would make a cent!" Yonemura-san glared through the rearview mirror.

"If any of you say anything negative like that, _especially you_, Akina-san, then for all the talent RAYS has, the press will twist it so you really _don't_ make a single yen!" We sobered up quickly after that, and consented to have idle conversation between us until we got there.

After arriving, we all piled out, unafraid of Paparazzi, as this was a strictly press-pass zone. I walked side-by-side with Hayato-kun, talking about the electric bass, which I was thinking of learning, and behind the other members of RAYS, with Ria cheerfully bouncing ahead and back, just like a little child.

"Really? That would be absolutely amazing!" Akiyama-san turned his head to look at me, as I had made a rather loud exclamation. I quickly covered my mouth with my hands and giggled as Hayato-kun smiled. "Hayato-kun's gonna give me bass lessons!" My quick response to Akiyama-san's stare seemed to unsettle him, but Hayato-kun addressed me again to confirm a date for our first lesson. I smiled and responded, quickly forgetting about Akiyama-san and all his stares.

After yawning through the press conference, the group of exhausted band members, manager, and friend went off to find the driver (who was probably having a relaxing smoke in the parking lot). This time, I, sleepy and disoriented from the dry heat of the press room, sat in the back row, where I knew there was a very strong AC vent by my feet. Everyone piled in, Ria sitting where she was before with Hayato-kun next to her and the drummer next to him. Akiyama-san sat next to me, and the keyboardist beside him. As the AC blasted to life, I smiled and tried to go to sleep—it didn't help that the night before was such a restless night for Ria and I, having gone to bed so late. Soon, Ria was silently sleeping, leaning on the shoulder of Hayato-kun like a little sister might. I, however, uncomfortably leaned against the side of the van, wishing for my comfortable queen-sized bed with extremely soft comforters. Akiyama-san, observing me, hesitantly asked if he might offer his shoulder as well. I blushed, and cautiously leaned my head against his broad shoulder, closing my eyes and immediately falling asleep.

"_Damn Haru, I think you're actually ahead now." The pianist commented wryly at the now cocky band member whose arm was around my body. He objected._

"_Hell naw, I mean, Hayato's the one who's pulling all the moves here." Everyone laughed and mocked Hayato-kun for being such a Casanova._

"_I'm just being myself here! Haru's the one acting like the typical _nice guy_ here to win over Akina-chan's heart." Hayato-kun shuddered. "Haru being nice, oooh, scary." The others agreed._

"_Hey, I'm just doing what I have to do to win this bet, alright?"_

_If only I had known._

Although that was the last time I saw RAYS (Ria excluded) for a while, sadly, I didn't get to see Fuji-kun or Eiji-kun for a while, either. Ria was going deep into the heart of Tokyo and living in some fancy hotel for the week for promotional reasons, and I, her tutor, confidante, and beloved sidekick, was invited along, just for kicks. That being said, I wasn't going to sit idly and be an ornament in Ria's professional life. I was a dancer, after all, and I sought master classes, exhibitions, and recital practices of my own to learn and grow from the experience. Shibuya, one of Tokyo's greatest shopping districts, was home to Bunkama-dori, a famous plaza with a theater _and_ concert hall. There, I was given the honor of performing a traditional Japanese dance with the elite. It is true my role was minor, yet the true value of the experience was watching the veiled emotion and supreme delicacy in graceful motions from an angle unseen by most people. It was invigorating, inspiring, and most importantly, brought me back to my roots. Once you take away everything else, the academics, the desire to succeed, even my love for my friends and for Ria, I am a dancer. This is my form of art. If I believed in God, this would be the time I was closest to him.

I spent the week doing things like that, attending this traditional dance hall, and going to that hip hop class (which was amazingly fun), learning this technique and that style. I even attended yoga classes for relaxation. In fact, I was so busy myself that the only time I saw Ria was at the end of the day, when both of us were too tired to say anything more than a "goodnight, love ya." However, I did get to spend some time with her on Saturday, the last day of our amazing vacation away from school. In fact, I spent the entire day with her.

After sleeping an extra hour and eating a full, fatty American breakfast, we hit the books. I first explained 500 years of Japanese history to Ria as she balked and shied away like a frisky horse. Then, I worked with her in Japanese (in this, she was well enough versed that we simply had to read together the assigned literature). After, she seemed to have calmed down to approach the subject of math. It took an hour for us to get through three sections, so I decided to stop and order room service. We ate outside on the balcony, enjoying the weather, and joyfully laughed about school. This seemed to rejuvenate Ria's brain cells enough to finish the chapter and review in 45 minutes, so as a reward, we decided to leave the hotel and return to our apartment for a girl's night together.

Within a few minutes, we were practically choking on fatty Lays with our rambunctious laughter. "And then," Ria cried out, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes, "She looks at me, like, _what the heck are you doing here?_" Our lapse back into English made the exchanges fast and private, a luxury after the crowded centers of Tokyo. "I was kinda glad about the whole situation, I mean, I hate the boring press conferences, but seeing those _Legend_ fan girls freak out just 'cuz I'm talking to their 'super hott dream of a boyfriend' that isn't even theirs, _that_ cracks me up every single time."

I nodded and agreed, sharing another anecdote about a tween freaking out when she realized I was related to Ria. As an afterthought, I added that the guys at _Legend_ deserved to be known for their personality, not just their looks. "Ain't that the truth," Ria laughed. "But even if they read about _Legend_ in their latest issue of _Popteen_ or something, let's admit it: they're fans for their looks."

I realized it was time for a confession. "That may be true, and I know personality is important, but I'll be the first to admit how shallow I am. I mean, I wouldn't want to date someone really ugly or anything." This was the side of me no one else saw but Ria. My regular, normal girl personality. It wasn't as if I deliberately hid it. It was just not something I normally applied in my life. Ria didn't mind though. Rather, she cultivated it and encouraged it, most likely thinking I was too uptight otherwise.

"Well, do you like anyone?" Ria leaned forward, anticipating a juicy snippet. "Ooh, what about Haru?" I shook my head. "Hayato?" Another shake. Ria paused, mentally searching around for more 'hot' guys. Her eyes then lit up, now sure of my crush.

"It's someone from Seigaku, isn't it?" She was so sure of herself that I broke into laughter. "Is it Tezuka-san, from the first class? He's really hot."

"Yeah, he's so hot. He's so hot he's cold, colder than dry ice. I have never seen that guy smile, not once. Plus, his fanclub is vicious! I'm pretty sure they bite… only I have no proof because there's never any trace of their enemies!" My remark applied to all of the tennis team's fanclub. At first, our friendship with Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun was allowed because we were new, and returnees to boot. Now, with Ria's celebrity status, we were left alone enough because damage to her would cause scandal in all of teenybopper Tokyo. Ria grimaced at the truth, but then continued on.

"Oishi-kun? You seemed to like him well enough when we were watching Eiji-kun's game." I shook my head.

"He seems too motherly for me… Alright, you can stop guessing, I'll tell you who I like." Ria's eyes grew wide and I knew I couldn't keep the truth from her. "I'm in love with… Inui-kun. After all, the way he coldly calculates the demise of his team mates by forcing vile concoctions down their throats is super sexy."

Ria wrinkled her nose at me. "Don't be mean! One day, he'll have a girlfriend, you know, and I'm sure she won't appreciate that very much." Both of us thought about the kind of girl that would really like Inui-kun that way and started laughing even harder. We pounded the flooring of our living room until I was sure the neighbors would complain. After we calmed down, we looked right into each other and broke out into laughter again. Finally, I, gasping for breath, changed topics before Ria could attack my secret crush again.

"Hey, I wanted to say that you and Fuji-kun looked super-adorable together that day at the festival." I had meant to tease, but at once, Ria's eyes hardened and practically cried out.

"You know that's not funny. I can't do anything in this line of work. I have no freedom, nothing. If I liked someone, I wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. The press would go crazy and Mom would cut that apart." I apologized right away, knowing it was true. Aunt was very stringent in making sure the stars of her company knew their place and didn't become the next Paris Hilton-meets-hooker. Ria, thankfully, accepted my apology, but to my satisfaction, added almost wistfully, "I wouldn't mind being a couple with him though."

Fuji-kun really was Ria's type, if you sat down and thought about it. When we talked about cute guys (Stateside, when Aunt wasn't there to hear or comment and when it didn't truly matter), she always liked the tall, muscular ones, with a sort of mystery behind them. While Fuji-kun seemed like the open sort of guy, to me at least, his closed eyes always seemed like an annoyance and a mystery at the same time. My choice was always the cool, yet sentimental type. Call me a romantic, but that's my type. I grimaced as I realized how far I had come from that.

"Right, so going by that logic, Eiji-kun's your crush?" I spit out the soda I was drinking all over the glass table, and started cleaning it up busily as Ria smirked at me with triumph. "Yeah, thought so. Weird though, 'cuz he's so not your type, but if you're trying to match me up with one of our closest friends here, there's definitely something wrong with you." I protested against this accusation.

"I swear Ria, you and Fuji-kun actually do look cute. So, when we go back to school on Monday, I bet your mailbox is going to be stuffed full of hate mail and stuff. I mean, even if the media didn't know who was under that mask, I'm pretty sure the 'Fuji is mine' fan club has a good idea."

The rest of the night, we joked back and forth about Ria's busy idol work, but to my dismay, when I got to school on Monday, I was right. I watched Ria's shoe locker open to a cascade of letters with the jagged, clichéd writing and her shoes missing. She looked upset, but smiled again when she pulled a spare pair of shoes out of her backpack-just as I had advised her this morning. She threw all the letters out except the last one, a bulky package, ("I have to know what they're saying about me, right?") and went to my locker. I had completely forgotten to open mine in the chaos of watching hers.

I dialed the combo and opened up my lock, but oddly enough, couldn't open my locker. I unhappily pulled harder, and a flow of letters came out of _my_ locker as well! I did not expect this; after all, Eiji-kun and I weren't a couple-didn't even look like one unlike Fuji-kun and Ria. Ria herself just shook her head and threw out the entire pile—my shoes included, as they had red swirls and glinted at the soles with what looked to be suspiciously like tacks. She took the largest letter from this pile, too, though it was just a particularly fat letter and not a manila envelope like hers. I pulled out my shoes—Ria had made me, just in case, from my backpack, and put them on.

I was about to put my outdoor shoes away when I saw Ria was still holding hers. She shook her head. "I though we'd wait for Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun to get here so we could put our shoes in their lockers. I mean, the fan clubs aren't going to invade their idol's privacy, are they?" Her voice was quiet and pained, obviously not expecting the girls who she thought were her friends to do this to her. On cue, Fuji-kun appeared behind her, opening his locker so Ria could put her shoes on top of hers. Eiji-kun, concerned but the fool as always, bounced over and offered his as well. As we walked to class, I opened my letter and read its contents silently.

Before moving to Japan, I had thought this sort of thing occurred in dramas and anime, but this was not so. "Get away from my Eiji!" The note, bold and presumptuous, was a joke. I looked through the rest of the envelope, but it was just one of my papers (a 100, mind you), shredded to a point unrecognizable to man. I did, however, find one thing of particular importance—a picture of me and Eiji-kun at the fish scooping station that night. I had taken my mask off in the heat, and was smiling at Eiji-kun, who was smiling at me. My heart beat hard, but I pushed it away and hid the picture in my books. Turning to Ria, I was about to joke that American girls were much more vicious, when I noticed how she had stopped and almost turned to stone. Eiji-kun lost his bounce, and even Fuji-kun looked concerned. Ria shrieked in horror, and offered the contents of the package for me to see.

**Tada! Sorry for the long wait, I'm a horrible person, aren't I? Well, too bad. I'll do my best to write more from now on!**

**I'd like to once again thank DreamsRMyLife for being such a careful beta! What would I do without her?**

**If you didn't reread the 1****st**** chapter, you may want to; I added breaks where my other ones didn't show up.**

**Until next time~JuniperScaymoore (This is a test: copy and paste the following if you can see it on FFnet. ****我愛你****!)**


	3. Chapter 3

_She stopped and almost turned to stone. Eiji-kun lost his bounce, and even Fuji-kun looked concerned. Ria shrieked in horror, and offered the contents of the package for me to see._

Hers, too, was a picture. Or rather, it was a large collection of pictures, compiled into a wonderful, wonderful book called a magazine. Only this time, this book was one of terror. A silhouette of two people under a tree showed, _kissing_, with a glimmer of light showing one edge of the yukata—the pattern displayed looked suspiciously like the pattern Ria and I wore! The bold words of a striking headline struck me with horror in a way no words had ever done before. "**Intense Love-Love! Upcoming Star's Love Headline**."

* * *

**Oh no! How will we rectify the situation? I've always wanted to use 'love-love' in a story. Onwards, please!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis, although I own the plotline of this story and my original characters. All the products and specific places within this story are real.**

**

* * *

**

Ria and I immediately looked at each other, holding more issues with that one front page than anything else.

"First of all, what do they mean 'upcoming star?'" I was annoyed to the point where my tone had become unbearable, sending visible chills down Eiji-kun's spine.

"Second, what's with that faker image? It's not a photoshopped image, but it sure isn't Fuji-kun and me." Ria's comic grin was replaced by a less annoyed look that could be symbolized in one of those emoticons my friends were always using.

"Ne… How do you know it's not us two?" Fuji-kun's evil glint added a blush to Ria's face, although it was _just_ faint enough that I was pretty sure the only one who noticed was me. Ria looked affirmatively at me and nodded in my direction.

"Ehh, I can't believe you want me to do this, Ria." I stuck my tongue out at her and pulled out a magnifying glass and a ruler. "Look here, observe the pattern closely. Although the color matches Ria's yukata, the color of the flowers is more of a cerulean than a lapis lazuli-color, which has a hint of green compared to a pure blue color. The background color is also annoyingly close to sky blue, a common color that bears no resemblance to the beautiful sapphire blue that Ria's silken yukata has. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a mass-produced line of cotton yukata that is very similar to this. Also, the proportions look off. Ria should be up to _here_, so this person's a bit shorter." Eiji-kun whistled as I rolled shut the magazine and hit him with it. "That's why I have such issue with it. But the article should be worth some light reading, so I'll just keep that." I stashed it in my bag.

"Kaa-sama should be fixing this issue with the press right now, so I wouldn't worry." Ria's face was still somewhat annoyed, but we walked to class—just in time for first period.

_English Notes:_

_Ria, you're in __huge__ trouble!_

**I know, but what can I do? Even if it wasn't me, this'll still cause a huge uproar!**

_I told you this was a bad idea._

**Oh shut up, you had fun, too.**

_It's not fun if you have to pay a price._

**No fear, no regrets.**

_Your obstinately stubborn girl! One day, you'll get us into trouble that _I_ can't fix, you can't fix… We'll be doomed, and you'll be here saying, __**no fear, no regrets!**_

**Ooh, that was a pretty good imitation of my handwriting—not! On the bright side, it is 'my first scandal!'**

_You know that's not funny._

_**What are you girls talking about?**_

_Yeah! I want to know, too!_

_[None of your business, Eiji-kun]_

**Pretty much, sorry Fuji-kun**

_**If you don't want to talk about it, it's alright.**_

_I want to know…_

_[No one cares, you should be studying. The character of Scout Finch can be compared to…]_

**Wrong book, Akina.**

_[I know the material anyway, why does it matter?]_

_I'm confused._

_[THEN STUDY!]_

_

* * *

_

At lunch, I received a phone call from Aunt, which spelled trouble. Orders were to immediately meet the chauffeur at the front gate, where we would meet her in the main office, which spelled more trouble. As we entered the office, Aunt, the public relations manager and co-chairwoman of SuzuC, sat behind her expensive, expensive desk, tapping incessantly and waiting impatiently for her troublesome 'starlets' to enter.

"Ria, darling, Akina, come in, do come in!" As her secretary left the room, Aunt's tone changed completely. "Ria. What is the meaning of **this?**" She held up the magazine in question with her gaudily long fingernails, painted in a fashion much too young for her. "You realize Suzuki Corporation doesn't allow for this sort of thing, right?" I gagged.

"Mother, you know that it isn't me in the picture, and you know you can prove it as well!" Ria's outburst was well justified, but still Aunt snarled.

"Just because I gave birth to you doesn't mean I can let this slide. True or not true, **we will find issue with this!**" Aunt's flawless English was a slap to the both of us, as she used it to rebuke us in a way only she could. "For the time being, I have fixed this issue, but you will most definitely be facing some consequences! Don't expect that you, who just started your career a month ago, can be forgiven for your 'naiveté' or 'innocent mistakes'!" She sighed. "This is the opportunity most girls would cut off all their hair for! For all the money we are spending on you, don't you wish you could be a bit more grateful? You are dismissed." As Ria and I turned to leave, Aunt added on one last thing. "Akina, stay. We have to talk." Ria threw me an apologetic look and left outside.

"Aunt, first of all, I apologize for consenting Ria to go to this festival in the first pla—" I was cut off by Aunt's dismissive wave.

"It isn't your fault at all. That girl needs to learn that not everything in life is handed to her on a silver platter. But enough of that. How are you? Have you been managing, living on your own? Your parents must be worried; make sure you visit them often." I nodded silently. "Have you any boy-friends? Don't be afraid, you can tell Auntie anything. Your instructors have told me that you are quite the quick learner, as always. If Ria could take from you, that would be absolutely fantastic. You've been working hard on your projects, have you? Good. I just wanted to make sure you were alright, since you were here already." I nodded politely and turned to leave, but Aunt interrupted me with a worried voice.

"Ah, one more thing, Akina. You should know that Uncle's offer still stands, if you want. The terms, of course, are non-negotiable, but you realize it is a much better offer than what you are living in right now, right?"

"Thank you Aunt, I will never forget your kindness, nor will I ever forget Uncle's either, however, I find no need to change my present situation."

Aunt nodded eagerly, but continued on to add one last part. "Never be afraid to ask us for anything. We are so deeply indebted to your parents that this would be the least we could do." After much more nodding, I bid my leave and exited the room.

* * *

"So, what did _she_ say?" Ria's eager question prodded me out of my reverie.

"Huh? Oh, nothing… Just the usual, how I should pay more attention to the things I let you do, you rascal." I lied almost as easily as I would have spoken a truth, but stopped mid laugh. "She's right though, I should go visit my parents soon…" Ria looked almost mournful as she stared at me.

"Do what you gotta do, Akina."

* * *

A month or two later, when everything had smoothed back into a regular rhythm again (the fangirls losing interest once they realized the magazine was a fraud and that Eiji-kun was too much of an idiot to fall in love), we went back to our apartment with Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun for another study period. Halfway through, the doorbell rang, and I excused myself to go get it. It was Hayato-kun, who, having been busy in the past, was finally coming over for my first bass lesson. I opened the door, but to my surprise, Akiyama-san was also there! I invited both in for tea, which Hayato-kun declined, and Akiyama-san accepted shyly. I shooed them both upstairs where Akiyama-san sat down with Ria, and Hayato-kun and I walked into another door on the side.

Outside, Akiyama-san scowled at Ria darkly, completely different than the way he acted towards me. "You are much too formal with me, Ria. Why are you suddenly calling me 'Akiyama-san' again? I thought we already established this: just call me Haru." Ria smiled and echoed his own name back at him, "Haru," and from this sound, Fuji-kun made an unpleasant face.

"Anyway, let me see what you're doing," 'Haru' seemed to blush, and quickly bent down to look at Ria's workbook. At the top of the page, neat handwriting showed notes from my strict jurisdiction. However, there was a clear break where I had gone to answer the door. Instead, Ria had doodled dragons breathing fire at the equation written there. "That's not that bad, luckily for you, geometry was my best subject." When Ria looked up in disbelief, he balked. "I am older than you guys by two years, you know?" He sat down next to Ria – in between her and Fuji-kun, to be exact, and started explaining the work to her. From there, Fuji-kun started smiling a bit more.

From inside the room, Hayato-kun and I were working with fervor. This was my personal studio, which held a computer tower and two monitors, digital keyboard, and a capacitor microphone standing straight up on a very beautiful, lightweight stand. It was soundproofed, so that no one would hear my frustrations and creations. "Ria's parents have always been very generous about our living space." I nodded towards an amp behind Hayato-kun, indicating he could use it, which he did hesitantly. However, he seemed to accept my explanation without so much as a question.

"Right then. First off, show me your hands." I reached out both hands, palms up and facing Hayato-kun. "You'll build up calluses as we start, so if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, you'd best stop right now." I shook my head. I may be obsessed with physical beauty, but I am no stranger to the signs of hard work.

We worked without pause for about half an hour when Hayato-kun confessed something to me.

"I had an ulterior motive for coming here." I looked up from the bass I was struggling to learn. "I wanted to take Ria-chan out on a date, but I thought that I ought to ask you first."

I furrowed my brow in a thinking face. "Hmm, well, that was a bad idea, wasn't it? Ria can't date; you saw what happened when someone wearing the same yukata as her went to that festival. Not to mention the fact that she has schoolwork, and all that." _She also likes someone else… Poor you._ At the sight of Hayato-kun's crestfallen face, I shrugged. "Then again, I have no _real_ authority over her. If she turns out to like you, I won't stop you."His face brightened, but inwardly, all I could think of was, _not going to happen._ Ria's crushes were few and far between, but she had a strong devotion to a person's character that wouldn't easily be broken. But hey, more unusual things have occurred before.

I decided that would be a good time to exit the studio. Allowing Hayato to put away his bass, I ushered him out and locked the door behind us.

"Oi! Akina! Haru's been helping me with geometry!" I made eye contact with the blushing band member and offered a warm smile. If Ria could like math, then he was doing something right. I walked over and looked down, but my smile faded quickly.

"Ria," I said quietly, "this is completely wrong."

The resulting sound was enough to cause the troublesome pigeons on our roof to fly away in fearful terror.

* * *

Later, a bashful Haru stood in our kitchen, darkly brooding whilst leaning against the refrigerator. As always, Ria and I were making dinner, or rather, Ria was cooking rice and such while I made dinner for six. Soon we were sitting around the island (our kitchen lacking a table), munching on curry chicken and laughing amongst ourselves. I sat next to Eiji-kun, absentmindedly reminding him to talk without his mouth full in between conversations with Haru, who sat next to me. Ria was next in the circle of sorts, sandwiched between both Haru and Hayato. I was pleased to note a disgruntled Fuji-kun sat across from Ria and next to Eiji-kun, occasionally interrupting with a blunt comment disguised by cordial tone. When dinner was over, I collected everyone's bowls and pushed them to the living room, where I could hear their conversation as I washed the bowls-curry becomes more and more difficult to wash away once it has dried.

I closed my eyes and smiled, listening to Ria's protestations against Hayato and Fuji-kun at a game of Sorry. Eiji-kun was being much too rowdy to participate, naturally, and soon, it became much too loud for me to listen in on their conversation. So instead, I began humming one of Ria' songs.

"You have a very nice voice." I jumped in surprise as I dropped the plate into the sink. Luckily, it didn't shatter. Haru stood next to me, hand out. "Need some help?"

I objected. "You're the guest! I can't let you do that!" Haru, in mock indignation, objected back.

"Aww, come on. It'll pass by quicker, and then we can play Sorry together…" I seriously considered his suggestion.

"Well, fine, but since you asked: you wash, I'll dry." We switched places, and we successfully washed and dried the rest of the plates. While I put them away, I heard a rustling by the sink. Turning to look up, I came face to face with a shower of water. Haru had sprayed me with the spray nozzle! I shrieked and fought back by grabbing a frying pan in self-defense. I fought my way up from the ground and angrily turned off the water. I glared furiously at Haru. "Clean up, _now_." I turned at a snicker to my left to find that the Sorry group had gone to see what all the fuss was about. I smiled, and was pleased to note a chill came across most people—that is, except Eiji-kun and Fuji-kun. The former was probably too ditzy to find anything wrong, and the latter was probably equally, if not more sadistic than I, so that my minor aggravation couldn't penetrate his.

Thirty minutes later, after Haru had cleaned everything up in the kitchen, it was about time for Ria and I to head off to our respective classes. Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun had already left, so it was just Ria, Hayato, Haru, and me. We were outside our apartment complex when Hayato insisted on escorting Ria off to her class—after all, they were going in the same direction. Haru, however chose to walk with me, his portion of the work already done and over with. It was a warm spring evening, and most houses had their windows open to catch the light breeze. The mood between us was also kept light; however, I scowled lightly at Haru with mock indignation, pretending to still be mad at him, but then, Haru posed a very interesting question.

"Do you want to go on a date with me on Saturday?" He rubbed his neck with his hand, looking embarrassed and trying to act cool. I stopped walking. What was with Ria's band mates? Didn't they understand Suzuki Corp's strict rules and regulations?

"You're not allowed to date." I looked up at him with my head tilted at a slight angle.

"We could go in disguise, you know." His embarrassed face now turned into a slightly more mischievous grin, but I just shook my head.

"What's a disguise? Wearing a hat? Please, you don't know the first thing about disguises, believe me, I know." I had seen enough press photos of the boys in their weird, whacky 'disguises' that didn't do much except hide their hair. It was like they wanted to draw attention to themselves without being recognized.

"Well, then you could show me!" His overeager reply drew contemplation from me, as I, too, grinned.

"Fine. Why don't we try this first? Saturday, my house, 8 AM _sharp_. Let's see if you can handle my pace before we go on a real date."

* * *

Haru hesitantly nodded. We continued walking onwards until we got to my instructor's house. There, I paused to say goodbye to Haru. I was without a doubt looking forward to surprising him on Saturday.

Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun were walking back to our place after tennis practice on Friday, when out of the blue, Fuji-kun invited us to go watch them play tennis.

"Who knows? You may see something interesting." Fuji-kun teased Ria, who had once told him how boring it was for non-tennis playing spectators.

"Nah, probably not. Watching you guys practice every day is boring enough." She dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand. "Anyways, I have a publicity thing at Shibuya all morning; I will most likely miss both of your matches, so there is no point in even trying." Having failed, Fuji-kun looked at Eiji-kun, raising an eyebrow. Eiji-kun understood, and attacked me.

"Ne, ne, Akina-chan, you can go, right?" I hated how Fuji-kun would use Eiji-kun as a extended weapon to attack me for no reason. In any case, I had a legitimate reason to not attend.

"Ah, gomen ne, but I have a date on Saturday." At once, the three beside me halted in their tracks. Eiji-kun jerked me backwards in particular, seeing as he was still latched onto me. "I didn't tell you, Ria? Haru asked me out on a date, so I said yes. He's coming over at 8 to pick me up." At once, Ria slipped into a tirade.

"WHAT? Firstly, Haru's my _bandmate_. What if things don't work out between you two? It'll be _horribly_ awkward for me, that's what! And you're always saying I can't date, and this is true, 'cuz I'm a celebrity and all that, but so are you! So is Haru! You hypocrite! Meanie! Evil!" I sweat dropped lightly as I waited for her to stop. When she finally did, she glared at me sharply as I started to explain.

"It's just a date… I have a feeling he doesn't really like me, and I need a break, so why not? Besides, it's not like I'll be going as I am." Ria glared even more harshly when she realized what I was going to do. "And you're also not allowed to date because your grades would drop. Also, Aunt is not very lenient with you." I added reason upon reason as to why Ria couldn't date until finally, I was interrupted by Ria's cry of _'enough already!'_

Eiji-kun was pouting, and Fuji-kun was smiling… sadistically. "That's not very kind of you to say, Akina-chan. I'm sure he likes you enough if he's asked you out on a date." To this, I shrugged. I figured that if Eiji-kun wasn't going to wizen up and be his cool, collected self, I could better use my time around a guy that was _always_ cool and collected.

I shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe we'll walk by… though I guarantee you won't recognize us."

* * *

Soon it was Saturday, the weather fair and with a light breeze. Haru rang the doorbell of my apartment complex holding a rose and nervously ruining his once tidy hair. He dressed casually, but it didn't matter. A young man, aged 13 or 14 answered the door, scowling darkly as he eyed Haru. "Akina isn't here," he growled, voice low and nearly prepubescent sounding.

Haru scowled back. "Who are you?" He eyed the short boy cautiously, hoping he wasn't a close relative or another. Just then, Ria popped her head in the doorway.

"Ah! Shou, if you're going to talk to Haru, you should at least let him in!" The boy grunted and pivoted sharply. He walked forward a bit before turning around and calling over his shoulder.

"Are you coming or not?"

Haru hesitantly walked in, utterly confused. Shou pointed at the living room couch before walking into a side room by the kitchen, where a feminine voice came out. "Ah, Haru! Come over here, please!" In an instant, Haru was over by the door, peering in, only to discover that the only person in the room was Shou. Perplexed, he turned to leave when Shou turned around himself and grinned at Haru.

"Oi! I told you my disguises were good!" At once, the illusion shattered, and Haru saw Shou for who he really was—me! My long brown hair was replaced by a dirty blonde wig, and I wore dark brown circle lens to mask my chocolate irises. Slouching a bit and wearing loose, androgynous clothing completed the look to make me appear like a boy—Shou. I pointed at a chair in front of me. "Let's do this!"

45 minutes later, we had two different people in the room. Shou, who scowled at everything _but_ Ria, and Haruto, a brown-haired rebel that wore outfits of black and red. I had quickly tied Haru's hair up in a wig cap, and plopped a messy brown wig onto his head, tying it back with a rubber band. I pushed him lightly into the bathroom with a long black jacket and long black pants. As he came out, I fixed his collar firmly while he smoothed down the wrinkles. Compared to his normal no-sleeved look, the longer sleeves made him look more fitting for the streets of Tokyo. Lastly, I firmly taped a band aid to the side of his face. Ria waltzed in, as she had done several times here and there, look a look, and whistled.

"Woah Haru, you look badass!" Haru grinned as I admonished her for her bad language. As she 'acquiesced' to change, I spun around and told Haru to speak with less emotion.

"The press may say you have a look-alike, but don't worry, we just have to get some RAYS people to say 'that doesn't look a thing like Haru.'" I nodded affirmatively before covering the last piece of information. "And stand up straight. Change in posture always brings on the biggest character-change."

Haru grimaced and tried to change. Still, it was something that took longer than the few minutes I had been pumping information to him. Well, it was almost 9, and I didn't see anything that needed work, so I slouched over again and scowled deeply. I jerked my head towards the door and spoke with a deeper voice. "Let's go."

We first went by the courts Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun would be playing on. I hadn't exactly planned it—it was in fact, on the way to our final destination—but made sure to walk by the sidewalk and not the street. My hands were in my pockets in a casual way, chatting with 'Haruto' in a casual, low voice. I didn't even glance at the court as we walked by, even though I heard the unmistakable cry of "Kikumaru Beam!" No, we had more important places to be, so we walked along. I noticed Haruto's face glance from my face to the courts as we walked past—just a flicker, but a waver, so I distracted him. "That's not our purpose." As Shou, I was less accommodating and instead, simply me.

We got to our destination—the busy street tennis court. Normally filled with fuzzy yellow balls and firm, crisp sounds of their send and return, the court was empty of tennis players and their items. Instead, there was a very different crowd ruling—the Court of the Sky. Some people stopped to greet me, but for the most part, people were involved in doing their own thing. Neatly dressed young men shook out their well combed hair and lay on the ground, staring at the sky and doing nothing—the one thing the probably never had time for. Skateboarders handed extra boards to their grinning companions and began to skate, instructing and learning, rebelling from parental rule. As we passed into the rest of the park, the Court only expanded. Peaceful-looking guys and girls played guitar with their cases closed, playing for joy, not money. People sat on benches, listening to loud, jarring music, letting out all their tightly held emotions with a look of relief. The Court of the Sky was a mismatched place, but a sanctuary all the same.

Haruto and I stopped by the fountain, where we were greeted by four teenagers. They acknowledged me by name, and I theirs. I grinned. "How odd that all of us are here for once. Shall I introduce my friend?" They agreed, and I announced in a pompous, imperial voice. "The Royal Consort, Haruto." Jester broke out into peals of laughter, but Haruto's face remained confused. I sighed. "Let me introduce them to you."

"First is Jester—" The handsome young boy gave a mock salute and quipped. "Jubilant Jester, that's my name, you can tread on it but it won't ever wear out!"

"Second, Knight—" Knight, a mirror image of the joking boy, nodded his head.

"Third, Bishop—" The prim looking boy pushed up his glasses and commented simply, "I hate it when you call me that. It gives the impression that I'm religious, when really, I play the part of advisor."

"And fourth, Rook." A small little kid with a band-aid on his face looked up and grinned. "I'm the strongest of the bunch, never mind Knight."

At this, Jester couldn't help but pipe up for his big brother. "Well, that's what he thinks, but Rook's short for Rookie—and everyone around here just calls him Commoner!" Knight couldn't care less, really, but instead pushed on.

"So, Shou, if you've come here, you know we'd expect a tribute from you." I scowled lightly.

"Dare you treat your Prince like this? First, allow me to continue my explanation and introductions." I turned to Haruto, arms spread out wide, and my back to my four aides. "Welcome to the Court of the Sky."

"I'd say your introductions are complete with that, Shou." Bishop sat back on the fountain ledge and tapped a silver boom box with the back of his hand. I smiled, and waved Haruto to the ledge, where everyone else had already sat down. Bishop pressed the play button and smirked. "Let's see how you do. This one's called Look at Me by Taeyang of Big Bang."

I smirked and waited for the song to pick up. I mimicked the music video's dance moves where possible, having heard this song from Ria before, but for the rest, I improvised. The most I did was a twin legged flare, not wanting to get too carried away. The moves were hard, but I knew how to do them. When the song ended, I jumped back onto my feet, panting slightly, and bowed. Jester was perhaps the most delighted, clapping his hands like a little kid. A crowd had gathered, with one of them coming forward to say, "I thought it was you, Shou." I smiled, a prince amongst his people.

* * *

As we walked back from the park, I tried to explain to Haruto what the Court of the Sky was all about. "When we moved here, we didn't really have much to unpack, so I dressed like I am now and I headed out, not really knowing where to go. I found the Court, with Jester and Knight, saying how their Prince had moved and how they needed a new one. Bishop was new, too, and he said to be the Prince, you had to be both the embodiment of the Sky and you had to give something to its people every time you went. The Court of the Sky is basically a free floating area that is dedicated to floating free. All that's required of you is to be yourself, with no obligations holding you down. The Prince and the court members ensure that. I'm also the only one in the Court that has a name other than my title. None of us have our real names though, because sometimes a name can really tie you down. Being somebody else brings out the real you, and it's something people at the Court embrace." I chuckled. "Of course, some of them have no idea they're in the Court of the Sky, and just have this unusually carefree time while within our grounds. But I don't mind." Haruto was silent for a minute, then pointed at a smoothie shop.

"Thanks for showing me this incredible thing. Do you want to grab something to drink? My treat." Shou, never one to turn down free food, accepted readily. We went in and Haruto ordered for us both. "One strawberry and one mango smoothie please." He handed me the mango and winked as he slurped the strawberry.

"How did you know mango was my favorite?" Despite my altered personality's altered looks, I still held the same taste preference I'd always had—a penchant for mangoes.

"Well, if you really want to know… Ria." Haruto gruffily responded. I thanked her as I drank my smoothie quietly. We were passing by the tennis courts again—the boy's matches already over—when suddenly I heard the approaching steps quicken and a sudden weight throw itself onto my back.

"AKINA-CHANNNN~~~!" Eiji-kun's annoying voice gave me a shudder as I pushed him off with a grunt.

"Who are you?" I stared at him and searched my database. As Shou, the only people I knew were those from my Court. This creepy, energetic redhead had no place in my head.

"That's awfully cruel, Akina-chan! Fujiko told me it was you when you passed by before, but I missed you! So when he pointed you out again, I _had_ to go catch you! Good thing I recognized you though, you look so different! I'm sure lots of other people would have gotten you mixed up with somebody else." He turned and smiled at Haruto, but beneath that smile, there was something else—a hint of cool. Could it be? Eiji-kun was being possessive of me? It couldn't be that. No, Eiji-kun would never be possessive, not over me. Therefore, I shrugged him off and, in a gruff voice, invited him back to my apartment. "Akina will be glad to see you." This one confused Eiji-kun.

He quickly shot me a question. "Eh? Then, you're not really Akina-chan, are you?"

I didn't say anything, and instead chose to glare at Fuji-kun, who had opened his mouth to say something unimportant… Well, that was Fuji-kun's personality. When he had that stupid grin on his face, he was bound to say something equally stupid. Luckily, I was there to watch out for him.

We got to the apartment without much fuss and I led the three boys in, dumping two in the living room. I hollered for Ria, who had just gotten out of her shower and was ready to distract. I pulled Haruto into a room, threw his old clothes at him and told him to change. I grabbed my own things and dashed into the bathroom. I quickly stripped out of my clothes and pulled off the ACE strips, pulled out the hairpins and took of the sweaty wig and wig cap. I dived into the guest room's shower and quickly rubbed the sweat off of me and washed my hair with lightning speed. I toweled off and dressed in a light blue graphic tee and capris and came outside. Haru was out in the living room already, so when I sunk into a seat, I was surprised by a bowl of freshly cut mangoes. He smiled at me as I grabbed a plate and a fork. They were off season, yet they were delicious. These must have cost a fortune! Who bought these? Oh yeah, I did. Well, I was enjoying it. In a gruff, yet normal voice, Haru informed me that he had to go.

"I just stayed to say goodbye. Err, I had fun today." I got up to show him out, and almost immediately after Haru left, Eiji-kun attempted to latch onto me. His attempt failed. I deflected him with one hand, holding off the pouting tennis player as I rolled my eyes.

"Please don't, I just took a shower." With that, he backed off, sad face easily distracted by eating some mangoes himself. Yeah, they were that good.

We made small talk for a while before Fuji-kun suggested we do something productive.

"Since we're already here, why don't we study for the upcoming English test?" I agreed, and glared at Ria.

"We should-especially since someone here who speaks fluent English didn't get a perfect score on her last test!"

Ria protested vehemently. "Well, I'm sorry, my grammar just isn't as good as I'd like it to be!"

With a final glare at Ria, I shooed all three upstairs and went to the study to grab some books.

I tossed a grammar book at Fuji-kun and motioned to Ria. "Help her." I had two reasons for not helping Ria myself. One, Fuji-kun would be more patient with her, and wouldn't skip over anything I thought she already knew. Two, I still thought they looked cute together. Heh.

"And that leaves me with you." I sighed, pretending I didn't care. "Well, let's start at the very beginning."

We worked quickly, each tutor knowing how to best hammer information into their student's head. Within an hour, Fuji-kun had finished helping Ria, and I had crammed as much English into Eiji-kun's brain as I could without hurting him.

As we got up to stretch, Fuji-kun said simply that it was probably best they go. Ria got up to show them out, and I followed. With a casual, "See you Monday," we said goodbye and closed the door, leaving a day of free time for us to do whatever.

We both grabbed some things from our rooms and went back upstairs. Heading into my studio, I jokingly spoke out to Ria. "I can trust you not to fall down the stairs?" She laughed and agreed and set up her iPod in its speaker system, pressing play as some Korean hip hop group started playing. I wrinkled my nose. "I don't see why you like that song." She shrugged, then shooed me away. I closed the door to my studio with a thud, making sure everything was in place, then turned on my computer. I quickly looked over my emails and replied to them, and went to write on my blog.

_Sorry to have been away so long, I have moved away from Nevada and into the wonderful world of Tokyo, Japan. As always, I miss you all—wish you could be here with me! Here are some interesting things that happened to me recently…_

After typing out a reasonably long post (I hadn't updated that thing in months!) I leaned back to stretch and closed my eyes, imagining my old life. We studied at one of Suzuki Corporation's dance schools, a coed boarding school that was one of the best of its kind. Of course, in a situation like that, the number of girls was greater than the boys, but in reality, it didn't matter. The two residential areas were far apart, and any person caught outside after curfew was strictly punished. There were those that dated, but none that snuck out after curfew. Ria and I had our fair share of crushes, and even the odd relationship in the past few years. Still, I think both of us were still waiting for that one relationship that put the spark in our lives and brought us out of the dreary monotony.

I chuckled, knowing that since we moved to Japan, almost every day brought something new. _It must be the air,_ I thought. _Every day, we see something new and revel at the people we meet._ The opportunities were immense here, and I was glad to have them available.

The rest of the day was spent casually doing nothing. As we normally had something to do on Saturdays, we had no classes or plans then. So, once in a blue moon, we'd have free time like today. We ate a light meal for dinner and went to bed early. Sunday was spent in similar fashion—and for the next few weeks, we held the same schedule. School, lessons, dance exhibitions for me and work for Ria. We managed to see Eiji-kun and Fuji-kun enough, but having finally settled into the monotony of living, I found time to think about my present situation in life.

It would start like this. Each night, as I settled down to sleep, I would review the day's events in my mind. I would laugh about an event in class, grin about one of Eiji-kun's antics, or smile about one of Fuji-kun's humorous remarks. Then, as I got more cozy, I would think about the particulars of each day, and once that was up, I would think of the boys' tennis practice.

From there, I would lament about how Eiji-kun had never lapsed back into his serious mode, and one day, that had me thinking. By thinking, I meant my devil came out. Angel Akina was too tired, but the devil never sleeps. _You shallow girl,_ she would coo, _who are you to say you're in love?_

I would fight back: _I think I'd know… This uncomfortable feeling when he stares at me too much, or shows a bout of obtuse kindness…_

_Silly child, _she'd say, _any girl would feel that. What separates you from his fanclub?_

_I'm his friend._

_Oh? Or are you just another victim of his kindness?_

This would sting. The expression my brain had found fit me perfectly, or at least I thought it did. It rooted itself deep within my mind, a tool my devil could use as it pleased.

_You're only a third year in Junior High—a ninth grader, a freshman. You are 15 years of age—what do you know about love? People spend their entire lives searching for love, and you say you've found it just by seeing one person play tennis?_

This argument would continue over and over again until I thought I would go crazy. Finally, I acquiesced. _I'm not in love. I'm not in love. I'm not in love. Now shut up!_

_As long as you know, _came the smooth reply.

So with every passing day, I became less enamored with Kikumaru Eiji. I tolerated him and laughed at him, but I was no longer eager to see his 'tough' side. I saw him for who he was, and it was probably for the best. Finally, after almost a month of this regular routine, I was accustomed to it. Gone were the pangs of 'I-think-I'm-in-love', and gone was the annoyed impatience with his so-not-cute personality. And, instead, I gained a comforting sense of contentment, along with a pleasant night's sleep each evening.

* * *

**This concludes chapter 3. Here are some acknowledgements I'd like to make: 1) To my wonderful Beta, DreamsRMyLife, for reading, advising, and supporting me… I'm not sure what I'd do without her. 2) To Signora Stelle, for correctly identifying my Chinese characters. 3) To CelestialXChaos for being a fun friend.**

**I apologize for not writing good endings to each chapter… Haha. –shot-**

**NEXT: Time flies, and before you know it, months have past! A few noteworthy events happen before love can kick in, and a few more events happen before the main plot kicks in. Sorry, please be patient. Give it two chapters and I *promise* it'll be there.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm back! This is an **_**unbeta'ed**_** version.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. It belongs instead to Takeshi Konomi, who managed to create this huge market for one single sport, generating all this buzz about something that's really not that interesting. Oh, the characters are amazing though, very fun and energetic… I don't own them, either. I do, however, own Suzuki Ria and Suzuki Akina, the latter who is telling this story.**

I dazed absentmindedly out the window before school started, waiting for the start of homeroom. It was already November. So much had happened from that first 'date' with Haru. Surprisingly, there was little monotony, unlike life back in the United States. Well, there were periods of regular life, but with the fast paced schedules that Ria and I each held, those were a blessing, not a curse. I smiled. Ria was happy here, and therefore, so was I. I thought back to a few of the events that had happened

~Flashback~

The physical fitness test, in May, was a fun event. It was formally called the "Emperor's Standard" or something equally obnoxious, but really, we just had to run a certain distance, do a number of sit ups, pull ups, and other exercises. We didn't have those at our old school. I huffed and puffed along with Ria as we ran a safe pace.

"I… hate… running!" Ria complained.

"Me too… keep going!" I tried to motivate her, running alongside my crabby cousin. "You need the strong lungs for singing, dear." She complained, but didn't stop.

At this point, Fuji-kun jogged up to us, laps ahead. "Ohyao, Ria-chan, Akina-chan." We nodded our reply when Ria struck up a conversation.

"Ne, Fuji-kun, will you jog with us?" She spoke politely for one so tired, and Fuji-kun probably would have said yes. Unfortunately, Inui-kun decided to jog up to us at that moment, holding a black jello in one hand and a notebook and pencil. As the jelly shook in the glass, Inui-kun spoke.

"Fuji. Just a note—the last amongst the regulars must drink this. It's something new I'm trying out." His glasses seemed to glint as he jogged, yet the jell-err, drink, didn't even move. Fuji-kun's light voice responded.

"Alright. It looks a bit thick, Inui-kun." Fuji-kun turned to Ria, an apology on his lips. "Gomen, Ria-chan, I should get going."

"But his drink things aren't that bad to you!" Ria's desperation for company forced her to blurt out. "You _like_ them. Please stay?"

Fuji-kun laughed. "I'd like to drink it, but I like to see people suffer more." I shuddered. Although my eyes were on the ground and focused forward, my ears were alert, and they heard extreme sadism from that comment. I was about to tell Ria to follow Fuji-kun, so she could finish faster, but Inui-kun spoke first.

"Note to self: Theory that Fuji Syusuke would drink the Triple X juice for Suzuki Ria, false." Neither Fuji-kun nor Ria seemed to acknowledge this one. Perhaps I was just imagining things.

~End Flashback~

"Akina, was that worksheet due in math today?" Ria's gently probing question brought me out of my reverie. I nodded. We hadn't done homework together in a while, but Ria had usually done well in handing her assignments in on time. Today was an exception, I supposed. I passed her my folder, and she nodded gratefully. We still had a while before homeroom began—about ten minutes if I had to guess. I don't know why we left the house early today. Nothing to do, I suppose. I turned my face to the window, which was open to let in a cool breeze. The weather was beginning to cool down again, but we were still in our summer uniforms. I enjoyed the uniforms better than their winter counterparts though. I was so glad when we changed uniforms.

~Flashback~

We changed uniforms at the start of June, when the weather was already unbearable and stifling to the point of frustration. Soon after, we had our school's athletic festival. We were originally going to cheer for the regulars, who were holding an exhibition match for those wondering about the tennis club. However, the temperature climbed so high we decided to stay inside and head to the gym. There, the dance team had its own exhibition. We were in our gym uniforms for the occasion, shorts and a white-and-green T-shirt. The dance team, which was doing an intricate routine, looked interesting enough, but present there were also scouts from other teams. In a flash, the karaoke club, musical, and chorus grabbed at Ria, and the cheerleaders, step team, and volleyball club grabbed at me. Ria politely declined, and they let her be, but for me, I had to repeat my refusal over and over again. We fought them off, met up again, when a dance team member approached us, too. She winced as she saw our protective stances.

"Relax, Ria-chan, Akina-chan. Two of our members are sick, and I **know** you guys dance well, so will you help us out?" We looked at her and relaxed our defenses when we saw it was Mariko-chan from our class.

"We can't learn a dance in a day," I pointed out.

"Oh, that's all right! We'll just go over some basic routines. They have spots that need to be filled, and they mainly ad-lib during the bridge of this one song, so you'll be able to do whatever." Ria, who was altogether too eager for a singer, agreed. We followed along with the section leader, learning fast enough, as they were the first-years faction. Their routines were easy enough, and when we had to ad lib, Ria went wild. I went forward first, performing basic moves to fill the time, but Ria really put her heart out there. When the time came to perform, shortly after lunch, I could tell everyone was having a great time. Since it was a non-academic day, we weren't required to attend (although we had to, since Ria had so many absences), so we left school early as well. We had no homework, and were going to go home and prepare for lessons the next day, but Eiji-kun bounced over and asked us if we wanted to go to Kawamura-san's sushi shop with him and the rest of the Regulars. We shrugged, not minding at all, and headed over.

I regretted accepting within the first few minutes of entering the sushi shop. Don't get me wrong, the food was delicious, but the characters within the shop were very high wound. Momo-chan, as he made me call him, started up a conversation with me almost right away.

"Yo! It's nice to meet Eiji-kun's girlfri-err, classmate!" I glared at him while Eiji-kun protested good naturedly.

"Hoi, hoi! We're not going out, Momo!"

I really didn't understand these people. Luckily, it was well past the lunch time and still before the dinner hour rush, so we weren't a bother to Taka-san's father. I sat at the bar, innocuously looking at the rambunctious crowd when I was approached by Inui-kun.

"Ii data." What was with this strange guy? I briefly recalled the incident of the fitness test. Wasn't he muttering something about theories or probability? "Suzuki Akina-san. 15 years old, birthday February 2nd, height 168 cm, blood type O…" He continued rattling on random facts about my being as my mortified face grew redder and redder. "Weight–"

"Stop!" I blurted out in sheer embarrassment. "Don't say it, please." Inui-kun opened his note book and jotted down a note.

"Is sensitive about her weight."

"Any lady would be, Inui-kun." Fuji-kun carelessly called out over his shoulder, enjoying his sushi. I turned back to Inui-kun.

"Recently returned from the United States, where she studied at a vocational school of dance, run by her cousin's parents." At this point, I began to protest, albeit feebly under the shock.

"Could you not talk about me in third person? It's a bit scary." After rambling on some more, Inui-kun shut the notebook and went off to Ria's end. I activated my sharp hearing skill. (I moved closer.)

"Suzuki Ria-san, 15 years old, birthday March 15th, height 165 cm, blood type B…" This time, he didn't even stop. "Weight, unknown, reportedly claiming she was 'fat' in a popular teen magazine." Ria just tilted her head to the side, openly displaying her confusion to the strange data man. "Held strong background in dance, but stopped a little over six months ago to begin musical training." Inui-kun continued talking, flipping page after page in his notebook. Finally, Ria spoke.

"Ano, Inui-kun… I don't really understand, but if you're a fan of RAYS, I can get you their autographs… You don't need to reiterate all that press info…" Inui-kun snapped close his notebook.

"That is quite unnecessary, Ria-san." He pulled out a clear, bubbling liquid. "Will you try this?" From next to Ria, Fuji-kun stared at the liquid with open eyes. Ria looked at Fuji-kun, staring directly at him for several seconds, before turning to Inui-kun and shrugging. In a gulp, she finished the drink.

"It tastes good!" She remarked happily. However, her pleasant expression quickly turned into one of disgust. Within moments she was gone, locked in the bathroom with retching sounds heard.

"Is that a new one, Inui-kun?" Fuji-kun's concerned look caused Inui-kun to stop scribbling in his book, flip to another page in the front, and scribble so more. After a few minutes of silence, Inui-kun offered me a taste, but I declined, and instead helped myself to some mango sushi. These were truly the best! Perfectly ripe mangoes, paired with rice and nori… I silently thanked Kami-sama for the delicious food.

~End Flashback~

"Akina, I don't get this one." I smiled at my cousin. Finally, she had the decency to ask when she didn't understand.

"Here, do you remember that theorem? You need to use that one to solve it, because it's much simpler than the example's roundabout way." She nodded again and continued on with her work. I checked my cell phone. "Five more minutes before class, Ria." With that, I turned to the window again. A cool breeze blew by, and I enjoyed it, but Ria shivered.

"Ohyao, Ria-chan." Fuji-kun's gentle voice prevented me from reentering my reverie. I turned to look at him as he casually took off his sports jacket and draped it around Ria. She smiled at him, and then returned to her work. Before Eiji-kun could block my daze from returning as well, I turned to daydream again.

~Flashback~

It was mid-August, and Ria had been absolutely swamped with work. I remember, because on the day of Seigaku's mandatory attendance day, I was rollerblading to school before the day had even truly warmed up.

"Yes... I understand, I'll send the doctor's report by late afternoon." I exited the office building, hurrying home to Ria. I stopped, though, because I saw Fuji-kun walking to school.

"Ohayo, Akina-chan. Aren't you going in the wrong direction?" I shook my head. Ordinarily, I would have enjoyed conversing with this intelligent friend of mine. However, today I had more pressing matters to attend to.

"Ria's home. She's sick, so I'm tending to her."

Fuji-kun's eyes opened slowly in shock. I had not seen them open much before, so I peered into his eyes curiously. That soon disappeared as he closed them and smiled. "Shock one, I guess." What?

Fuji-kun seemed to read my mind. "Oh, just something Nee-chan said would happen." Now I was really confused, but he had school and I a sick patient, so I bid him farewell and raced off. I did hear, however, his calling out behind me.

"Eiji-kun and I will visit after class, okay?"

I shrugged and went home, easing myself by Ria's side as it were the most natural thing in the world, and, for me at least, it was. I had phoned the doctor, who said he couldn't come until noon, which was fine, and left a message on Aunt's cell phone. I put a cool compress on her forehead and whispered sweet things to her. Although she didn't get sick often, when she did, her fevers could be dangerous. They left her weak and delirious.

"Akina?" Her feeble voice pushed their way under layers of covers. "Why are you here?" I frowned.

"Why wouldn't I be? You're the most important person in my life." And it was true. Ria was my best friend, and I loved her dearly.

"Well… You have places to be. More important places." What was she talking about? "Demo… none of this would have happened without me." Oh, this again.

"Hai, I owe it all to you, and I won't ever forget it."

"Kaa-sama forgot. And she loves you better." This was new.

"No, she doesn't." My firm voice caused her to be silent for a few minutes. I changed the compress to its cooler side.

"Yeah, she does. Aki-nee… She doesn't love me at all, does she?"

At this moment, a crashing sound came from the front door.

"Ria! Are you okay?" Aunt's shrill voice pierced through the apartment.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she weakly called out. Aunt quickly found her and knelt by her, like I was doing.

"Kaa-sama, how are you?" Aunt was close to crying. "Did you come to see Aki-nee?"

"No, silly, I came to see you. Don't talk when you're sick."

I left the room to let Aunt be a Mother. I leaned against the wall, thinking back to Ria's condition. She was the type to be perpetually joyous, so that when she got so sick and feverish that nothing else mattered, she would babble out her worries to whomever was leaning over her. It had ended many a primitive friendship, but I was used to it. The best thing to do was to soothe and comfort her, for she truly regretted those words once she was lucid again.

So this time it was Aunt. Well, Aunt had her reasons. She _had_ to be harsh on Ria, because if she was easy on her, Ria's reputation would be marred by her goodwill. So instead, she let me take care of Ria, and distanced herself from her only daughter until she went platinum last month. Ria had been shocked, and was still adjusting, I supposed. A few minutes passed, and Aunt came out.

"Has she been eating properly? What have you given her today?" I frowned.

"Nothing but some congee… She hasn't been able to stomach other foods before." Aunt nodded, and we proceeded to discuss Ria until the doctor arrived. He prescribed bed rest and a few pills, but that was all. Once he left, Aunt began discussing Ria's personal life with me.

The doorbell rang after a few rounds of tea, and I got up to open the door. Aunt got up too, grabbing her things, all the while cursing at herself for leaving the office unattended. When I answered the door to two concerned males, Aunt sat back down. I awkwardly introduced them as they awkwardly reacted to meeting the mother of Ria.

"So, these are Ria's playmates?" Her cold gaze made me shudder. Ria wasn't eight anymore, but Aunt still treated her darling as a precious treasure that could not be breathed upon by boys.

"Hai, it's very nice to meet the woman who raised Ria so well." Fuji-kun's ever smiling face usually sent shivers down my spine, but today, I was cheering him on. Aunt blushed, then turned sternly to Eiji-kun.

"And you are her friend as well?" Eiji-kun, oblivious as always, grinned at her.

"Hai! Ria-chan's my friend! She's really nice and fun to be around." Aunt stared skeptically at him for a few moments, then decided he was no threat-just like I did. She should have been more worried about the glib Fuji-kun, but instead, her phone vibrated, and she hurriedly got up.

"Ah! I'm so sorry, Akina, I have no time for this! Please give Ria my love…" And with that, she was gone.

Fuji-kun politely inquired about Ria, and I allowed him to go in. I knew he wouldn't harm her, and I had my ways of watching what was happening in there. Before he went in, I stopped him. "Fuji-kun…. I just wanted to warn you, and this may not even come up, but when Ria has a fever, she tends to… say stuff she doesn't necessarily mean. Just hear her full story first, OK?" Fuji-kun nodded gratefully and went in.

Ria was sitting up in her bed with her covers pulled around her, lightly shivering despite her high body temperature.

"Konichiwa, Fuji-kun," she said.

"Konichiwa, Ria-chan," he responded, keeping the mood light. He sat down beside his bed, inquiring about her day.

"Fuji-kun, I think I love you." She didn't even respond to the question. Fuji-kun, shocked though he was, had the decency not to mutter _Shock Two_ in front of the already restless Ria.

"Well, this is a surprise," he murmured, voice low yet happy. "What do you mean by think?"

"Because at the same time, I also hate you." Her simple reply was clear and carried well, yet surely it was the fever talking. Ria never spoke like this. Poor Fuji-kun didn't know which was the shock—the confession of love, or the confession of hate. Perhaps it was both. He leaned in to smooth her covers a bit, only to catch her muttering. "Fuji-kun's so perfect, you would probably rather die than like me that way."

"I'm not perfect. Just because I'm athletic and academically gifted doesn't mean that I'm inhuman-"

"Not a lot of people share that opinion, Fuji-kun."

"Please, call me Syuusuke." This was direct, and simple, showing clear feelings that had been thought through before. Good for him. "You know, I'm not immune to love. Given the chance, I'll fall in love with a normal girl, too."

"I'm normal?" Ria's face furrowed in a light frown.

"Quite the opposite, really." Fuji-kun smiled and reached out to hold Ria's hand with a gentle expression on his face. "You are by far the most extraordinary person I have ever met, and I want to spend every waking moment with you."

"Honto?" Her innocent question seemed to be funny, because Fuji-kun laughed, a chiming sound that made Ria's confused face finally turn to a peaceful smile.

"Honto." He leaned in and kissed Ria on the forehead. He leaned back out, but never let go of her hand.

"Shhh! Eiji-kun, go _away_!" I hastily pushed Eiji-kun away as I scrambled away from the door, patting dust off my clothes. I quickly shooed him into the kitchen, where I put him to work pouring orange juice for Ria while I reheated the congee. It may be a disgusting combo, but the doctor said she needed vitamin C. We had everything put on a tray in a few minutes, and I was about to carry it in when Fuji-kun opened the door.

"Thanks, Akina-chan!" He took the tray and went back to Ria's side, taking care to say to me as he closed the door, "make sure you wear warmer clothes if you plan on sitting on the floor."

~End Flashback~

I shook my head lightly to dispel the thoughts of Fuji-kun and Ria. I had more than enough of that, really. At least in the afternoons, I didn't have to see their lovey-dovey attitudes (they treated each other like newlyweds—minus, of course, the frenching and the… other things). I went to Mariko-chan's house to do homework nowadays, and Ria went to Fuji-kun's. Poor Eiji-kun simply went home, and his grades were suffering again.

Class was starting, and Fuji-kun and Ria were still talking quietly amongst themselves, Ria giggling from time to time at his remarks. Well, thank goodness their romance had no interferences whatsoever. Fuji-kun's suave nature had convinced Aunt into OK-ing the pair, and there was currently a internal battle within Fuji-kun's fanclub about how the "ideal couple" should either be fawned over together, or destroyed with no signs of friendship. This battle had nothing to do with the actual couple, though, so they went along, happy and oblivious.

As for what the Regulars thought of it, Ryoma-kun was probably the most indifferent. Everyone had an opinion on it but him—Eiji-kun thought it was cute but still treated the two as separate friends, Momo-chan loved it and teased Ria mercilessly, Inui-kun was being his usual obsessive self, collecting data on every aspect of their relationship, and Tezuka-buchou simply gave a stern, "yudan sezu ni ikou," after Taka-san congratulated Fuji-kun. Even Kaidou-kun seemed to blush and hiss at the sight of Ria walking with Fuji-kun before and after practice. As for me, I was okay with it. I was a bit lonely, but overall, Fuji-kun was a positive influence in Ria's life. She even laughed at Fuji-kun's sadism as if it were simply a joke. But enough of that. As homeroom started, Chisako-chan, our class president walked to the front of the class and cleared her throat. "Ano…" People shut up. That was the magic of our class president! The last time people ignored her, she screamed and yelled until everyone was fearful for their lives. At least she was effective!

"Newer students wouldn't know that, but it's almost time for our cultural festival!" Several people cheered, Eiji-kun included. "However, we need to decide on an event to do. This is our last year at Seigaku so we need to go out with a bang!" This time, several people groaned half-heartedly.

"Can't we just sell paper love charms again?"

"It's an escalator school, so it's not like we're never coming back…"

Chisa-chan glared at both these people. "That's so _half hearted_! Would it help if I said the class that wins gets all-you-can-eat passes to the burger place two blocks down?" All the guys looked up, and Chisa-chan grinned. "So, ideas, people?"

"Let's do a fashion show!"

"Not cost-efficient."

"Bake sale?"

"Class 3-1 is doing that."

We put forth several suggestions, but they just got worse as we got along. Finally, someone slammed his hand onto the desk. "WAIT!" Everyone looked at him.

"What are we doing? We have a celebrity in the classroom, as well as two tennis regular with individual _fanclubs!_" He grimaced, as if he hated to admit it.

"We also have Akina-chan, who's really pretty, too!" Mariko-chan added. "We could do a maid café!"

Everyone seemed to agree with this idea. Chisa-chan wrote the idea on the blackboard, and smiled. "Glad we could come to a decision. Now, Sensei said we could have the math period to discuss our plans. Shall we start?"

**Oooh, I'm so terribly bad at writing endings (don't blame me for my writing, I just finished watching **_**The Parent Trap**_**). Don't worry, I actually have Chapter five done! You just won't see it until next week, I dear say. Well, I should at least start Chapter Six… That one's going to be very impact-ful. Though I'm not so sure about the length. Would you mind if it were a good 3-4 pages shorter than this one?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. Sorry.**

An amazing change came over Seigaku in the week before the cultural festival! I wondered if it were like this in every class, for ours was so energetic that I feared none could match. Students would beg the math teacher to allow them to use the period to calculate costs, and the Japanese teacher to allow them to create banners and study marketing. Life skills was dedicated to sewing clothing for the waiters and waitresses—Chisa-chan, Fuji-kun, Ria, Eiji-kun, a handful of handsome boys in our class, and me. We were fortunate to have so many visually pleasing people in our class, really. However, the only class we received no enthusiasm in was English. The teacher refused, saying the grades in this class were so horrible that only those with passing grades could work on our project. Therefore, while most people worked busily on various aspects of our stall, Eiji-kun and some of our other boys cried silently in the front of the classroom. Towards the end of the week, however, they were set free as the entire school let classes out to work continually on the cultural festival.

Fuji-kun and Ria worked on supervising decorations, whilst Eiji-kun and I worked on getting all the food in. Eiji-kun's bubbly personality came into handy when we both walked around town searching for shops that would sponsor our café. "Suzuki Ria will be there! She'll be endorsing your product, you know." _Passively, that is._ My persuasive attitude _also_ came in handy as I promoted both my cousin and glorified our cultural festival. We tried to avoid big corporations, such as Starbucks, instead heading to small businesses that were well known in the area. I wondered if my classmates allowed Eiji-kun and I to do this alone because he was too oblivious treat it as a date, or because of that very reason. I knew that Mariko-chan saw us as the cutest couple alive, Fuji-kun and Ria aside.

As for me, after wrestling with my feelings over the last few months, I decided I _did_ like Eiji-kun. If it were on the level of Ria's love for Fuji-kun, I didn't know, but I no longer felt ambivalent about my feelings. There was something about the way he acted that drew people to him, me included. Of course, he was the complete opposite of my ideal, but, I guess liking someone broke down barriers in that way.

"Akina-chan, let's go into that one! Nee-chan told me about it a few weeks ago, I think." Eiji-kun pulled me in as I protested good naturedly. Eiji-kun ordered strawberry shortcake while I talked with the manager. After the old geezer hit on me repeatedly, I huffily pulled Eiji-kun out.

"Let's talk to that taiyaki stand." I adored the fish-shaped bean cakes. I ordered a few, even though I knew we couldn't possibly procure it for our stand.

And so we went along, looking for possible free food. Eiji-kun's infectious personality turned out to help, but not as much as I'd have wished, because while waitresses fell in love with him and glared at me, most managers remained stony-faced and meticulous about cost-calculations. After an entire of such exhausting work, I sighed, upset and worn out. Eiji-kun, staring at me worriedly, decided I didn't have enough running around Tokyo that day, and grabbed my hand.

"Akina-chan, let's go have some ice cream!" He energetically tugged me along, and I found myself being led by an overenthusiastic boy. I blushed, holding my other hand to my mouth to cover my smile. He ordered strawberry for him and vanilla for me. "I know you like mangoes, but that's a sherbet, and sometimes if you eat something different, you'll like your favorite even more, nya!" I giggled, licking the ice cream cone happily. Lately, I had fallen in love with the absentminded thoughts I was having. _What if,_ they said, _what if he liked me back?_ There were no signs that denied it, and spending less time together had made the moments we shared all the more valuable. Perhaps I was over thinking things. Eiji-kun didn't, that's for sure!

* * *

"We have two sponsors… Blackthorn Café and Coco Express… Coco said they'd provide the theme and decoration, as well as their signature tea and cake, and Blackthorn said they'd provide the rest…. Sorry Fuji-kun, Ria, you'll have to redo it all." I stared rather apologetically at the two, but Ria beamed instead.

"Oh, don't worry! It sounds like fun, doesn't it, Syuusuke?" Said man beamed back at her.

"Of course." It was so sweet, I would have gagged. But no, I was supportive.

"Now, originally, Coco wanted you to wear a special outfit, which would have been fine since we haven't actually made anything by way of costumes yet, but I showed him a picture of you, Fuji-kun, and the rest of the waiters and waitresses, and then they decided to create individual outfits for each person." Ria whistled.

"Where'd they get the resources?"

"It's a maid café." Ria looked forlorn at the fact that her boyfriend would know this until he explained himself. "I'm pretty sure it's the one Momo-chan was talking to Ryoma-kun about it." She seemed content with this and brightened.

"Well, then it must be pretty famous!" Ria discussed several details about design with me that I would later bring back to the café… Ugh, the complications of a cultural festival.

If you ask me about what happened with Haru, we went on a couple other dates, but never really got farther than friendship level. After a bit, I made it clear that it wasn't really working out, so he agreed and backed off. He even warned me about Hayato, who was evidently a horrible character.

"I've known him all my life, and he's always hidden his true intent to the public eye. If I were you, I'd watch out for him." The sweet Hayato that had asked _my_ permission to date Ria? I agreed, but I didn't think much of it.

I was pleased to note that the next time the topic of Haru came up between Fuji-kun, Ria, Eiji-kun and me, Eiji-kun was clinging in a more protective stance than his normal attacking hug. But perhaps that was my imagination.

After a whole week of organization and stress, we finally geared up for our dress rehearsals. That is to say, the day before our cultural festival, we finally dressed up in our costumes.

I wore a black and white maid outfit, a gothic style, with my hair tied in high pigtails. Mariko-chan, a makeup genius, gave me layers of mascara with thick eyeliner that made me more Lolita than gothic. I was a bit afraid, because it seemed otaku-like, but everyone seemed to love it. To distinguish myself from the more colorful characters in our café, I wore black lace up arm warmers and knee-high boots with an extra inch to elongate my height. I disliked it—the boots threw off my center of balance. "You'll have to be extra preppy and clueless to make people like you, especially with Ria here." Chisa-chan's warning rung in my mind as I quickly dismounted the mountainous shoes.

Eiji-kun wore a long white shirt with a black vest on top. Mariko-chan smoothed down his vicious cowlicks like a professional, ("I'll get them to stay down if it means I have to cut them off!"), making his silly look appear more refined and mature. His silly personality, however, ruined _that_ aura, but he did look more appealing. With a stern warning not to get his uniform dirty, he was done.

Fuji-kun, on the other hand, had to wear a white suit, to highlight his more eloquent personality. Mariko-chan had fixed his hair so that it dissolved his girlish look somewhat and gave him a more manly appearance. Ria would have been positively purring, had she the time to witness it herself. Instead, she was busy changing into her own dress.

It was a mixture of blood red, and black. The lace straps led down to a tight corset-like top portion with more black lace running down the red sides and into the attached skirt. That, too, was red with black stripes, with a fishnet under layer that added more depth to the look. A heavy metal chain weighed down the skirt, pulling the dress taut against her skin. The chain itself was wrapped in loops around Ria's belt circles. From the front, however, only one of these was visible. The other one was covered by a large, puffy bow that added a cute feminine touch. Ria groaned as the black lace choker was fastened on her neck—she had had enough of those in her short lifetime already.

Eiji-kun was the first to react. "Ria-chan is so _cute,_ nya!" Everyone nodded slowly, unsure of how to react. She truly looked like a diamond in the rough, despite our wonderful costumes. It was infuriating to me, who had a much simpler costume than hers. Why did Ria get all the spotlight? The fact that she was a popular teen idol had _nothing_ to do with it. I sighed discontentedly. Love or no, jealousy was taking over!

Since the beautiful green emotion was in full reign, of course Fuji-kun stepped up next. "Ria-chan…" he began dangerously, blue eyes flashing, but smile firmly in place. Everyone held their breath, waiting for the storm to start, but Ria, innocent as ever, saw his possessiveness as something else.

"You don't like it?" Her giant eyes looked up at him, face forlorn as she tried to please him. "If you don't, do you think the café will mind if we get something else? I don't think I look good in this, either…" At that, his eyes closed in reluctance as he darkly muttered, "We'll talk about this later."

We soon changed out of our outfits and went home. Ria had a talk show to appear on, so we couldn't wait for the boys, who were still working out scheduling conflicts between the tennis club and the café. I waited patiently for my beloved cousin, and we walked slowly home.

I was glad that we were alone, because I missed the one-on-one conversations we used to have. We chattered about idle gossip in Ria's work and the truth behind them, happily walking along. Ria, confident that I had always liked Eiji-kun, asked me anxiously about him.

"I think that he's too much of a blockhead to ask you out, so you've got to do it yourself! Syuusuke and I will definitely support you, so you should go for it!" I laughed at her silly and passionate nature, but agreed.

"OK, I'll go ahead and become another statistic." I rolled my eyes as I said these words. With Eiji-kun's popularity among the girls, I really would be a statistic, factored into Inui-kun's popularity equations. But, I really did agree. With the way things were going now, we'd head into senior high without any security in what would happen. Perhaps we'd even drift apart… and I'd hate that. "I'll ask him tomorrow, during the cultural festival."

"ALRIGHT! OPERATION: GET AKINA TO LIKE SOMEB-" I anxiously shushed Ria before she could finish her undoubtedly long title. She'd disturb the neighbors, and besides, it was embarrassing.

In effort to distract her, I offered some of her favorite fruit. "Let's go eat some freshly cut apples, shall we?"

**A/N: Oops, forgot to upload. Has it been a week already? Many thanks to DreamsRMyLife for beta'ing, as always. What would you guys think if my chapters suddenly got a lot shorter? I don't think I'd like that, either. Therefore, this will be the last chapter you see in a while, as I will be working on a much longer chapter next time. I am also participating in NaNoWriMo, too, so November will be busy indeed.**

**Lots of love, JuniperScaymoore**


	6. The Beginning

**Note: This is the chapter that really picks things up and starts the chain moving, so before I start, I would like to say that I have been creating and recreating this story in my head since I was in fifth grade (approximately five years ago). This is a story very dear to me, which makes it all the harder to write, so please forgive any failures and plot holes you may find.**

**Bolded words are in English. Small amounts of Chinese are used, with translation at the end.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.**

**Chapter 6: The Beginning**

The next morning seemed like any other, excepting of course the apprehension in the air. Ria and I walked through our day by day routines, joining Fuji-kun at the crossroads between our house and his. As usual, I walked a little bit to the left of Ria, creating a distinct space between myself and the happy couple. We got to school early, which was just right, considering we had left early as well. However, with a small smile and a nod to Ria, I let the two pass me by, and waited in the front of the school. There was no morning practice, which meant that Eiji-kun would oversleep and get to school just before the bell rang. I was correct with my assumption, but didn't realize just how close to the bell his arrival would be. He flashed a smile to me as I hastily ran inside with him. I stopped right before the door and pulled at his jacket, forcing him to jerk to a stop.

"Eiji-kun," My voice, usually strong and confident, was strangely timid, and shy. "Do you want to have lunch together on the roof? I have something important I want to tell you."

He seemed to sense that it was indeed something important and answered with a grin. "Sure!"

Inwardly, I sighed. I had gotten that part over. Now I just had to wait for that horrible hour. The sliding door slammed itself open, and Ria pulled us both in with a broad smile and a light reprimanding. It _was_ the cultural festival after all!

Thirty minutes later, we had finished setting all the food up in the back of the classroom, which had been separated and labeled our "kitchen". We briefly got our schedule assignments, (having told the organizers to put us anywhere), and discovered with great delight that we would have the hour before and during Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun's shifts, which ended in time for lunch. As the boys had to show up at the tennis club's booth for a bit, we walked down the hall, chattering excitedly. I noted an interesting photography gallery and made a mental note to shove Fuji-kun and Ria in there—though they had probably already thought of it themselves. I myself would be spending a little bit of time everywhere. Chisa-chan had insisted upon it, as I would be wearing my maid outfit and a handheld sign advertising our shop. I didn't think our booth would be empty—on the contrary, many people from all over Japan had posted blogs saying they would come—Ria, again, was a popular impetus for their strong will.

After spending a little time around the tennis booth—myself chatting absentmindedly to the reticent Ryoma-kun—the four of us departed, Fuji-kun escorting Ria to our shift, and Eiji-kun bouncing along. I was in a slightly euphoric high, the adrenaline being a mix of my first cultural festival experience and my soon-to-be confession. I thought of a million things in that short walk, and my daydreaming was even more intense than the usual. However, I soon saw something that made my entire blood freeze. It enraged me and angered me—seeing _her_ again.

People were chattering excitedly as we rounded the corner of one particularly crowded hallway. I inattentively followed their gaze, only to stop in my tracks. Ria, who was walking behind me, stopped also, and looked up from her chat with Fuji-kun. She, too, froze.

_That girl_ noticed my conspicuous attire and waltzed over, pretty as you please, and spoke in an excited, high pitched voice.

"**Akina! Is that really you? Oh, my gosh, you look **_**so **_**adorable… I haven't seen you since you moved away so abruptly!"** I stood there gaping as she frowned and shifted her weight onto one leg, pouting slightly. "**Oh, tell me you remember me? I certainly haven't forgotten you, **我的好朋友。" Her cute voice suddenly switched into an oily, vile voice that sickened my ears. With anger in my voice, I responded, sharply, cruelly.

"我不是你的朋友！" I had never been one to openly display my hatred with aggression. I softened my tone almost immediately. "**What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be **_**in Nevada?**_**" **She shook her head, a silly, evil grin on her face.

"**Of course not! I'm here, with you, visiting my great friend. Guess what? Now that I'm in high school, I've decided to spend my year abroad here, with you!"** I groaned. Why me? Why today?

"**Uh, hello? Whatever happened to living in Taiwan for a year and living with your grandfather?**" She shrugged. It seemed she had forgotten entirely about this. Her eyes lit up.

"**Wanna introduce me to your friends?**" No, no I didn't. I wanted her to get out of the country and go home. But her hungry eyes had locked onto Fuji-kun, and Ria bristled up like an angry cat.

"**This is Syuusuke Fuji. My boyfriend." **Ria's introduction made that evil girl back away. Even she had that decency, I supposed. Fuji-kun nodded briskly with a very polite 'nice to meet you' in flawless English. She probably harrumphed in her mind, but then turned eagerly to Eiji-kun, who skipped up with a joyous smile.

"Parker Emily, but you can call me Emily-chan." I winced. When had she learned Japanese?

"Kikumaru Eiji! It's nice to meet Akina-chan and Ria-chan's friend, nya!" I glared at him.

"Believe me, Eiji-kun, she's no friend of mine." She laughed a high, shrill laugh. That laugh was described once as a beautiful chime noise. Instead, that laugh was to me a cowbell clanging noisily and repeatedly. Eiji-kun looked confused, but Emily interrupted further thought process on his part.

"Eiji-kun, I'm new to Japan and I get lost _really_ easily, so could you show me around?" He smiled his silly grin and agreed, speaking quickly as he had always done. I couldn't bear it anymore and fled to the café. This scene wasn't strange to me at all.

Ria walked in a few moments later, Fuji-kun trailing behind. I silently noted his open blue eyes. She turned around to talk to him with a low voice, and with a nod, Fuji-kun slunk back to the kitchen, where he'd be a comfortable distance away for Ria to be her idol personality while still keeping an eye on her. I almost laughed out of relief—at least one thing was the same as normal. However, I was still frozen over. How could I wait on other tables when a vile girl of my past had reappeared?

Gradually, I realized that I could indeed focus on my waitressing. With a false personality that soon melted into sincere happiness, I managed to forget about most of my worries—until the next shift came in and I noticed Emily alone with Eiji-kun. She took a seat softly by the door, poised with grace as always. I almost threw up when I realized I had to complete my second shift, all while looking at her. But, she was quiet, and the rest of the café noisy, so I was able to postpone my fears until the end of the block. As I left, I gave a backhanded wave to the two boys, appearing carefree when all I really wanted to do was shout, "Eiji-kun, stop talking to her, don't let her confuse you, she's a witch, an evil girl who will only hurt you, use you." Fuji-kun, I could trust to stay faithful. Eiji-kun had no need for such a commitment… but I kept all of these things inside me and walked on. I got my bento and climbed the stairs to the roof. I think Mariko-chan had notified the usual lovey-dovey couples that visited the roof to stay away today, and for that I was grateful. I decided I would eat my bento early and wait for Eiji-kun to come. Fool he was, he wouldn't break a promise that easily, and when he came, I'd be able to explain more about Emily.

I was so anxious that I almost didn't realize my phone ringing. I cautiously picked up when I realized it was Aunt's number.

"Akina-chan, I have the best proposition for you!"

"Aunt, I have already told you—"

"Oh, no, I have another piece of information that changes the picture entirely. You see, I know you've been studying Korean, and South Korea is where people in the entertainment industry make the most money! So, since Suzuki Corporation is promoting one popular company's solo artist in Japan, they said we could send one person as a representative and see how things are done! So, what do you say?"

My head was already dizzy from the various things that happened that day, so in my foolishness I didn't outright reject this proposal and instead told Aunt this: "I'll think about it, Aunt. Thank you." I hung up, knowing I'd probably end up rejecting it anyway. There were more important matters on hand, I'd realized, and these things would have to be taken care of.

I dozed off, but woke when I heard voices. There was no supersonic hearing involved this time, only whispers I could barely hear, and giggles that gave me chills. I looked down over the elevated surface I was sleeping on and saw Eiji-kun and _Emily._ She had draped herself over him like a lynx admiring its soon to be meal. I shook my head and was about to drop down to rebuke them both when she turned him towards her, lent in, and kissed him. She kissed him… and with my shocked eyes, wide open and excruciatingly observant, I saw him kissing back.

I hopped off the platform and onto my two feet, inches away from the adoring couple. I had had enough. Not wanting to disturb their oh-so-beautiful expression of love, I ran down the stairs and into the café, which had closed for lunch. I dashed into the kitchen and changed quickly, grabbing my things as I left. I was stopped however, by Mariko-chan, who I hadn't noticed before. With a worried expression on her face, she asked me what was wrong.

"Nothing, I'm just tired and really want to go to bed." I lied, though in a way it was true. I was tired, tired of everything…

"That's a lie. You're crying. Akina-chan, your mascara is running and everything." I held still as she fixed the makeup disaster, but then turned to leave again.

"Thanks… but really, I have to go." I took one step towards the door when yet another obstruction appeared—Eiji-kun himself, with a sly Emily in tow.

"Akina-chan! You weren't on the roof like you said you'd be, nya!" Enough of his nya's! I wanted to go home.

"I was." My solid mumble confused him, as I don't believe he noticed me in the midst of his devotion. I felt tears biting at the corners of my eyes, so I hurriedly pushed past him and left.

He didn't follow.

**Glossary of Chinese phrases, in order of appearance.**

我的好朋友 – My good friend. Here, Emily is using a difference in language to mock Akina.

我不是你的朋友！- I am not your friend.

**Did I shock you? Haha. I will update next week as well, so please look forward to it~ **


	7. Letting You Go

**Note: This was originally part of chapter 6, but due to pacing issues, I decided to split it up.**

**Additional Notes: This story was originally supposed to be told in Ria/Akina's points of view, but I dropped to just Akina. As the story progresses, I will shift back to Ria, but I will put clearer indicators this time, don't worry.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.**

**Chapter 7: Letting You Go**

**

* * *

**

I avoided going to school the next day. Ria was worried, bless her soul, and avoided the topic, though I had sobbed the entire story to her the night before. I felt like a big baby, vulnerable and small. I sat there, huddled in my room, hating my life and everything in it. I just wanted to get away, away from the problem, away from the issue, so when Aunt called again about her proposal, I made a mistake… I said yes.

I was to leave in a week, but I wanted to get away sooner than that. I packed a few of my things and messaged Ria… She'd get my message soon. I cleaned up my frog-like face and dressed somberly. The train station was within walking distance so away I went. I quickly bought a ticket and settled onto the train. Just as it was leaving, I felt my phone vibrate. It was Ria

_What the heck are you doing, Akina? Go home!_

"Sorry, I just don't want to stay here anymore."

_You know she's done this before, why let it affect you like this?_

"Maybe I'm just tired of it happening, time and time again."

_Forget about that! Just come home! Where are you going anyway?_

"Kyoto."

There was silence at the other end of the receiver. As the train pulled away at an amazing rate, I felt the world slipping away.

_Are you coming back?_

The small voice troubled me, but this time, I could not be the big sister I normally was.

"Yeah, but not for long."

* * *

**~Ria's PoV~**

I hung up the phone, fearful, worried. Akina had _never, ever_ been this distraught before, no matter the circumstance. _I_ was the one who would have panic attacks. She was supposed to comfort _me_. I could feel myself start to hyperventilate, until a warm hand touched my shoulder.

"Ria-chan…" I turned to look at Syuusuke, who was just as concerned for Akina as I was. He was so kind, so considerate… and then there was Eiji-kun, who was scum, the lowest… Both stood by me, searching for news about Akina.

"Akina is fine, I think." My voice trembled a bit. If she was going to Kyoto, that would mean that she was visiting her parents, and…

"Ria-chan." This time, Syuusuke's voice was firmer, more authoritative. I looked up. "I think you should tell us what's going on."

I swallowed. "Okay." My voice was timid, afraid to tell someone else the story of Akina's life… the story only I knew in full. "It's going to take some time though."

"We have time." This was true. When I heard the vibrations of my cell phone, I keeled over and pretended to have cramps. We were now hiding in the nurses' office, as she was out and the door was open. In any case, where would I begin?

"Well, I suppose you should first know that Akina and I aren't really cousins. If you wanted to be really accurate, we could be sisters. You see, my parents first took in Akina when a series of strange circumstances occurred…

"I could still remember the day, when I was still a small child. My mother, then gentle, led in a sad, gangly child that looked a bit older than I was. She was my cousin, Akina, and she would be staying with us, she announced, and left to cook something for dinner. I crawled up to her and we struck up polite conversation until Mother shouted that dinner was ready. We silently went to the table and sat, barely eating. My mother didn't say much, and so neither did we, at least until we went to bed. Not having prepared beforehand, there was only one bed (mine) in the room Akina would be staying (also mine). Somehow, her hand found mine in the dark, and we silently bonded.

"Akina and I became inseparable, especially when I learned that her family had gotten into a car accident. Of course my dad felt indebted to his brother's family and took Akina in, especially since my uncle had given him a kidney when they were both younger. My uncle died in that accident, but Akina's mom suffered only brain injuries and was perfectly fine—with the exception that she couldn't remember her only child.

"Until Akina met me, she had not spoken a word since the accident. I visited her mother with her a few times, and each time Akina grew increasingly morose. Her mother remembered her, but only as a small child. Each time she would greet Akina, saying, "hello little one! Of course, I have one younger than you; she's a darling, really." One day, Akina played along, and the radiant smile on her mother's face was truly incredible.

"My mother seemed to think this was enough of Kami-sama's punishment and sent us to America to learn at one of the company's many schools. It was a boarding school where we both thrived, learning, joking, and acting as though our lives were normal. But of course nothing could last like that. We were in the 6th grade when we first met Emily Parker.

"Emily was the world's worst creation. To boys, she was the epitome of perfection, rivaled only by Akina. However, to the girls, she was the devil incarnate. Emily's main goal in life was to destroy anyone who stood in her way, and she quickly decided that the only person worthy of complete destruction was Akina herself. Grade wise, Emily would study ahead to show her intellectual capabilities were higher than my cousin's genius. Artistically, she would strive to perform better than anyone else, and oftentimes, she would succeed. This in itself would not be such a horrible occurrence, had she kept her second nasty habit to herself—she was a ruthless 'hunter'. This much was evident when she pushed Akina down a flight of stairs in the 7th grade. There was no real proof, but with several mild injuries, Akina could not dance, and instead spent a semester dabbling in other arts.

"It was there she met her crush. He was a gentleman, I met him myself, and to do him justice, he was perfectly infatuated with Akina. However, just as they were on the verge of actually getting together, Emily stepped in. Using her charms, he forgot about Akina in a flash, and she was betrayed.

'But being without success in your love endeavors hardly matters, not when you're in the middle of 7th grade, and Akina soon brushed herself off and got up. She resumed dance, and her ability increased amazingly.

"However, when it's friendship, then it is another thing altogether. It didn't matter what gender they were, all of Akina's friends slowly defaulted to Emily. Through deception, and hurtful rumors, Emily rose to the top of our school's social ladder, an angel warning against the evils of my dear, sweet cousin. There came a point in time where Akina and I were alone—of course we had silent supporters, but no friends. And so… well, the time came when Mother wanted us to move back, so we did. We spent the few months in between our school year and the Japanese one learning language, preparing for my debut, various things like that. Our mood never got happier, because it couldn't. All we ever had was each other, and we've always been perfectly content with that."

Silence came across the darkened infirmary. I carefully watched Syuusuke and Eiji-kun, allowing them to process our storybook life. I waited until Syuusuke voiced a question.

"So, where is Akina-chan going now?" I frowned as I thought back to the phone call.

"Kyoto… so, she's probably going to her mother's house. I know she kept in contact with her, even after we moved to America…"

"How long will she be there?" Eiji-kun blurted out, so hastily that I _almost_ felt sorry for him. But instead, I glared.

"Who knows? A week or two?" Thankfully the period ended, that I wouldn't have to answer anymore questions. Eiji-kun hovered awkwardly for a second before running to go get lunch and mull over his thoughts, but Syuusuke just sat there for a while… Thank goodness. I put my head on his shoulder and bit my lip, trying not to cry.

"Akina's never done this before. She's gotten angry and sad but usually _I'm_ the unreliable one! _I'm_ the one with nervous breakdowns and temper tantrums and crazy thoughts! What if, what if…" I was ready to wail, but Syuusuke sat there quietly before answering.

"Ria-chan," he began, breaking off before deciding to continue. "Everybody has a breaking point. Maybe Akina-chan has finally reached hers." I closed my eyes, not wanting to reply to such a truthful statement.

* * *

**~Akina's PoV~**

I stepped off the train mechanically. The train was very empty, it being well past the commuting hour, so I had no difficulty in exiting the platform and getting to one of the larger streets. I purchased a map and walked to an address I knew by heart. In a small suburban area off the main streets of Kyoto, a quaint little house stood. I knocked, knowing there would be an answer. Mom always worked at home, busily and efficiently. When the door opened, she stood there, quizzically staring.

"Akina? Don't you have school today?" I nodded, but stepped inside anyway. "Won't your parents worry about you?" I shook my head, and took off my shoes, sitting inside. Mom's caring heart prevented her from kicking me out, so I just wanted to nurse my wounded self. She seemed to know this.

"I'll be right back honey. You can tell me all about it."

She may have forgotten that I was her daughter, but we kept in contact over the years. I had made sure of it. I told her all the details a mother should know, so even though she wasn't really my mom anymore, I still thought of her that way. When she gave me a cup of hot water, tears brimmed out of my eyes and I started sobbing.

I ended up staying for a week with my things. Eventually, I felt that I had treaded enough upon my mom's hospitality—she wasn't suited to motherhood anymore—and left. I was careful enough to just leave a note, and I went back to my own apartment.

When I got back to the apartment, Ria wasn't there, which was a good sign, because that meant Fuji-kun was forcing her to go to school. I sat in my room quietly, not bothering to unpack. After a little bit, the door opened, and Ria quietly entered the building. I could hear the sadness in her steps. Her heavy breath caught itself as she saw my suitcase, and the steps quickened to reach my bedroom.

"Akina? You're back!" She practically jumped into my arms, but I could no longer think of her, and her alone. There was part of me that had changed into a more selfish girl, with more guards up than before. I did hug her back, needing the love as much as she needed mine. We held that position for a bit before I told her.

"Ria, I'm going to Korea in a few days." She pulled me back to look at me in the eye.

"What?" She looked entirely desolate at this, but my mind had been made up.

"I couldn't stay here anymore, and Aunt called, so I said yes." I took a deep breath. "And when I come back…"

"I know." Her voice trembled, but she looked the picture of the brave warrior I knew she was trying to be. I stared at her for a bit longer before sighing. I leaned forward, so that my head hit her shoulder. She carried herself the way a young adult would—my leaving her must have been hard on her.

"Oh Ria," I cried out. "Why has everything fallen apart so quickly?" She said nothing, but instead sat there weeping without tears. Our predicament was such that we were unable to really understand, but that was all right. Somehow, we would figure things out.

"When's your plane leaving?" Her words jolted me out of my dream-like reverie, although my position had not changed from its vulnerable state. I fumbled mentally for the answer to this mundane question. I straightened up and pulled my hair back from my face to look at her.

"Friday. It was supposed to actually be next month, but I-I couldn't." My voice quieted, and I stared into my hands. At that moment, Ria's voice brightened.

"Well. I can't say I blame you, and one week actually isn't too bad. It'll take time to pack everything and I can at least see you off, and honestly, I don't blame you for not wanting to stay." Despite her cheery aura, I could clearly hear the waver at the end of her voice. However, I smiled and thanked her for her positive outlook.

"Y-yeah, it'll definitely take time to wrap everything up." Ria flashed my a small, sad smile, and I almost broke into tears once more. However, I was instead able to regain my composure and stand up. "Well, shall we make dinner?"

I laughed and joked with Ria in the kitchen, realizing with pride how far Ria had come from the unstable little girl she had been before our move. We had both been strengthened by various things along the way, and she was most definitely maturing into her own little lady.

"You really don't need me anymore, Ria-chan." I added an honorific in teasing. She laughed back but shook her head, hair flying in every direction before I told her to stop. As we ate some fried rice, we held casual conversation with informative purposes.

"So how are you and Fuji-kun?" Ria's face brightened into a truly happy smile.

"We're good. He's really supportive; you should really thank him, you know?" I agreed to this, but Ria continued. "I mean, when you first left, I didn't even want to go to school or anything, but he made me, and for the first few days, made sure I was attending to my schedules and everything." With a happy smile, I commented back.

"Well then, I definitely _do_ have reason to thank him!" She asked me about my stay in Kyoto, and I replied with ardent zeal. This cheerful speech was wonderful in the aspect that it helped pass the time, and when dinner was done, we moved into my room to do homework. This was accompanied by an explanation.

"This is sort of why Fuji-kun doesn't really come over anymore. After a while, I wanted to do homework in your room… Don't look at me like that, I really missed you! And well, I didn't really think it would be fair if I simply invited Fuji-kun inside with me, so he sort of accepted that and went home." She looked at her books sheepishly, but I only shook my head.

"Well, that's hardly fair to him. Fuji-kun's a good guy; he wouldn't hurt you or anything, so why push him away?" I shook my head and continued working, though my response time was slower, having not listened to sensei's lectures. We worked for the rest of the hour, but it appeared as though Ria had no problem with the work, so we called it a day and got ready for bed.

Ria refused to leave my bed, so we slept together, hands intertwining under the covers silently, peacefully, readily… As if some sort of hidden instinct we had lay buried within our souls.

The next day we both got up, bright and early, and for once, left the house in a timely fashion. We had not even walked very far from the gate of our apartment before we saw Fuji-kun smiling patiently. I saw a flicker of blue before his casual greeting, allowing what I realized to be surprise to register, if only for a second.

"Ohayogotsaimasu, Akina-chan." I greeted him back, and we walked in what was once again awkward silence for me amidst affectionate chatter for the happy couple. However, I had more important things to worry about. I was lost in a very deep frown before Fuji-kun remarked on something that probably was quite unusual for him to see.

"Why, Akina-chan, you're not wearing a backpack! Is there are reason for such a thing?" I looked up from him, and my facial features lost their focused look.

"Oh, well, you see…" I nervously skirted around the topic before shrugging. "I don't really need it anymore." Ria looked down, and I could tell that she was probably clenching Fuji-kun's hand tightly, if not for assurance, then for lack of a better way to say, 'forget it'. Luckily, he did, and once more, the brainless chatter went on.

As we reached the main gate, I put my shoes in my shoe locker for what would probably be the last time, and walked slowly to the main office, one hand on the wall and the other gripping a manila envelope, arm swinging slightly. The hallway was only lit with a few lights, so I walked in semi-darkness, but I could hear the muffled laughter of children and the quiet but intimate conversation of couples in their classrooms. Of those classrooms, I heard one high, distinctive voice.

"Koizumi-kun, I can't—you know I have a boyfriend." The 'delicate' voice of a princess wafted out into the hall the way a pungent odor of hatred surely exuded from my body. The deep, coarse voice of Koizumi-san, the school bully, barked its way out as well.

"Parker, as if you'll survive a week without me here. Do you realize how many people want to kill you for even asserting that Kikumaru's your boyfriend? Yeah, multiply that number by three, and you get the total number of people that will kill you because you said that you two _kissed_." At this, I bristled in anger, but didn't stop to hear her response. For all I cared, the haughty girl could be torn apart by the wolves that were in this school.

I reached the main office and spoke quietly to the secretary, handing her my envelope while explaining. She looked shocked at first, but quickly understood. This scenario had sadly been prepared ahead of time, so she at least knew who I was and where I was coming from. Once this was done, I messaged Ria and walked to the front gate, where she would be meeting me.

Of course, we would soon see each other at home, but a departure under these circumstances was still quite a lonely thing, so of course she attempted to persuade me to stay once more.

"It'll be hell here without you," she said, quietly. "Emily's been giving me all sorts of nonsense since the moment you left."

"Well, she's not in your class, is she?" Ria shook her head. "You'll be fine," I continued. "Fuji-kun will be there, and _he_ most certainly won't do anything stupid." I checked my watch and motioned towards the gate before leaving. "Get inside as soon as possible," I called out behind me. "You'll most definitely be late if you don't." And with that, I left.

Ria probably went to class, the good child that she was, but for me, I had to go. I set off at a brisk pace once I noticed the familiarly barreling figure in the distance—a late Eiji-kun on the warpath once more—and didn't want to be caught in that. I was almost out of earshot when he reached the gate and looked around. Of course, he did a double take when he saw my figure—probably didn't expect to see me there—and called out to me. However, I ignored him, and walked home, where I changed into more comfortable clothes and put away my uniform for the last time.

I did not really have a set destination in mind as I strolled throughout the city. I looked like another girl skipping school, except for the fact that I carried myself not with a false sense of pride, but a calm sort of dignity. I was above what people thought I was, and I presented myself as such. The baggy clothes and baseball cap I wore were no indication of style, and so I was not bothered by any other people—at least for a short time. This soon came to pass as three kids walked up to me and began walking by my side. Normally, I would have ignored this, as it was a civilian district and quite populated by others. However, these kids—of and about my age—began talking to me, casually, as if we were friends.

"Hello there!" I turned to look at one of the smaller boys, who wore worn out street clothes much like mine. I nodded to him, but noted with widened eyes that this was Knight, the protective boy of Sky. I hadn't seen him in a while, not having been in Tokyo, but to his credit, I never expected him to skip school. I greeted him warily before turning my eyes to the other two of his company. I saw Jester, walking with an atypically sullen expression on his face, but also saw a boy I did not know previously. This boy grinned as we made eye contact and circled around so that he was onto my right.

"Hello, pretty-face." I scowled at the boy's shallow compliment. "What are you doing here when you could be spending your time cooped up in a boring, old school-house?" Again, I scowled. I turned instead to Knight, wondering if he recognized me with a sort of idle interest.

"What's your name?" I carefully asked him, but the older-brother figure winked at me with a sly expression on his face.

"Well, I can't exactly tell you that, can I? What if it's a secret?" He laughed at my surprised face and put an arm around my shoulder, which I didn't resist. Only when I maintained the distance away from him did he continue. "Well, that's not really a big deal. Why don't we take a journey, since you're obviously not going to class today?" He grinned, and Jester snorted, as if to protest his failure of a twin. I, however, shrugged. I could care less where I was going, and as I trusted the true people of Knight and Jester, I continued walking.

We walked for a few minutes, the boys chattering quickly as I walked silently. I noticed that we were heading in the direction of the Court, or at least, its last location since we'd last met. That was fine; I expected no one to really be there, it being a normal Tuesday with everyone at their rightful place.

However, I was surprised. As I rounded the corner, Knight's arm long since shrugged off, I noticed Bishop sitting by the fountain, as if expecting our company. His glasses flashed as some sort of intelligent recognition, and he smiled as he greeted my company. "Jester, Knight, welcome. I see you've brought some friends?" Jester laughed—a bark, really—and began to settle into his normal, joking mood. Knight straightened his slouching back and abandoned the mischievous glint in his eye for a more patronizing smile, but the boy to my left only laughed at Bishop.

"When are you going to give me a name? I've been here so many times already." Bishop shook his head, smile still remaining.

"That's for our Prince to decide. Besides, we have a full court already." Quickly, the boy sought retort.

"You've yet to find an Ace. Besides, I haven't seen the Prince around even once. Are you sure you won't need another?"

Jester replied to this one, eyes twinkling with a happy smile. "Oh, you never know where you might find that guy. No, for now at least, we won't need another Prince." I smiled, proud of my Court. However, this exchange made me wonder all the more if they recognized me. They probably did—my disguise, when all was said and done, was a poor one, and knowing Bishop, he probably knew my real name and information about me—classified, of course. He was truly amazing in that sense. Whatever. If they knew, then they pretended to hide it, and it was with the air of a near stranger that Knight turned to talk to me.

"Welcome to the Court of the Sky. You can do whatever you want, so what do you want to do?" I pondered this for a second. If I danced, they would know it was Prince, without a doubt, and I'd be forced to release my secret. Besides, there _was_ something I wanted to do even more than dance.

"Sing." My one word came out of the blue, and I caught Jester's eyes widening with surprise. Bishop smirked, as if he somehow knew what I was going to say beforehand, and urged me onwards.

"Well, then, this plaza is your stage. Go for it." Jester gave me a thumbs up and pushed me into the center of the "stage". I smiled and wondered what to sing.

_Love, so mercurial, so fast,_

_Emotion, lasting forever in your heart_

_I can't find the sky anymore  
I can't find my hope anymore  
But somehow, I'll be alright._

I smiled as I sang the first song Ria and I ever heard in Japan. It was fun, seeing as I hadn't properly sung in a while. As I continued, a few other people gathered, although it was nothing—most people were still busy in their own lives. Still, it was nice, being noticed. I bowed to the small crowd as I finished and Jester grinned.

"Wow~ You're pretty good!" I flashed a smile at him, grateful for the compliment. I turned to the other boy, who was sitting on a nearby bench and asked him gently.

"What do _you_ want to do?" He laughed before replying.

"Well, to be honest, it's nothing flashy, but I've been doing it all this while." He lay his back flat on the bench and stared at the sky. After a while, he spoke. "To be honest, all I want to do is stare at the sky." He laughed—the colder, smoggy sky was no excuse for the harsh brightness that no doubt assaulted his eyes, so he quickly fixed the problem by putting on sunglasses that he had clenched in his hand.

I sat on the fountain ledge once more, looking at him with a happy face. It was good that he was content—that was the purpose of the Court, after all. From my left, Bishop leaned over and spoke in my ear.

"Why are you here like this?" I turned and tilted my head in question, but Bishop just laughed. "You know what I'm talking about, _Prince_." To this, I smiled.

"Ah, well, I am unable to say right now, but somehow, I just found my way here." Bishop closed his eyes and smiled.

"Well, that's nice, isn't it?" I looked around at my Court. It was nice that I had a family of sorts here. Rook wasn't here, but he was a good kid—probably at school. "It's nice that you can enjoy time here. Come back soon, so we can move Court, okay?" I nodded. We hadn't changed locations in a while—things were no doubt beginning to get boring for the kids. I laughed.

"Alright. I'll be here tomorrow, and we'll move Court then. I have to tal—" I was cut off by Jester, who suddenly appeared to the side of me.

"Oi, what'cha doin'? It's already afternoon, let's go get something to eat!" I turned to Bishop and asked him if he would join us—I'd always liked his bright, intelligent personality the best. Unfortunately, he declined, but it was of little consequence—Jester and Knight were fun as well. I'd acknowledged Ace already, so I guess I enjoyed his personality enough as well. With a smile, I was happily lead away by a gentle Knight and a very _loud_ Jester, who was animatedly joking around with a sleepily yawning Ace.

* * *

**~Ria's PoV~**

Eiji-kun dropped his bag onto his desk with a heavy sigh. "Guys, I think I just saw Akina-chan! I went to go talk to her but she ignored me and…" I looked at him, mild contempt still on my face. Of course, he couldn't chase after her, not with guilt weighing him down. Maybe he was just too much of a blockhead to realize the stupidity of his actions.

"Yeah, well, she's not exactly coming back." I looked at my hands as I felt the stares of both Syuusuke and Eiji-kun at me. "She handed in her forms today."

"B-but she can't do that! How can she, she's not even in senior high—she can't quit school!" I looked at Eiji-kun and sighed. He didn't understand, so it didn't matter. The teacher shushed him and he turned his back on me. I turned to the window—from Akina's chair—and dozed off before I was poked in the side. Syuusuke held out a note, plain as day. It _was_ Math class, however, and the night before, Akina had showed me the things we'd be doing in the next week, so I didn't have to really pay attention until tonight, when she'd go over it in detail… I took the note.

_**Are you alright?**_

I turned to face Syuusuke with a smile. He smiled back supportively as always. I quickly scrawled a reply.

**Yes. I'm fine.**

_**Eiji-kun wants to know why Akina won't come back.**_

I stopped for a little before writing.

**I'm sorry, but I can't explain now. It's rather long and winded, so I can't really explain.**

Syuusuke looked at the note carefully before smiling. I could hear him exhale before his pencil descended onto the paper once more.

_**Well, then, do you want to go for ice cream later? You can explain then, right?**_

I smiled and turned back to him, giving him a thumbs up to signal my OK. "_Just let me go home first, okay?"_ I mouthed these words to him and focused back to the math lesson.

The rest of the school day seemed like eternity, but eventually, it was over, and while the boys had tennis practice, I headed back to my apartment to drop off my things. I noticed sadly that Akina wasn't home, but shook it off. She could most certainly take care of herself, so I grabbed some thick glasses and a scarf to disguise myself and went back to watch their practice. Soon, we were going to an ice cream parlor, nearby the park. "We come here often, because of the tennis courts nearby." That was right, there was a tennis court nearby. I idly wondered how I knew that before the memory jolted in my mind. Akina's Court was here! She always brought me around a new location for who knows what reason, I guess because it _was_ her pride and joy. I looked around absentmindedly for any sign of Akina, not expecting to find any, but ended up finding a familiar figure right in front of my face.

"Akina!" I bolted out of my chair, standing up and pointing at her. I immediately smacked my head—mentally, of course—and closed my eyes, scolding myself for the foolish mistake. Akina definitely would not have wanted to see _him_, and I brought attention to her right then and there. I opened my eyes to see the guys around her scrambling, and her clenching her fists to turn around.

"Hi Ria; Fuji-kun." She ignored Eiji-kun, who protested violently at the fact. She walked over to join us, but I only flashed an apologetic smile at her, at which she winced and smiled back. She sat down next to me and across from Syuusuke. "What's up?" So she was in gangster mode.

Instead of having idle conversation, however, Eiji-kun attempted to get directly to the point of things.

"Why did you ignore me this morning? And where have you _been?_" She sighed heavily and looked at Eiji-kun straight in the eye.

"I'll be completely honest and admit that I don't want to see you right now, so please, don't address me in such a coarse manner." She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I ignored you for that reason—I don't want to talk to you. And I've been around." Syuusuke leaned forward and calmly pressed on.

"Akina-chan, we wanted Ria-chan to explain why you weren't coming to school anymore… could you…?" He left off cautiously, and I looked at him with frightened eyes. I had no idea what Akina would do in this situation. For all I knew, she could explode right that instant.

She didn't, but instead motioned in my direction with a wave of her hand. "Well then, go on, explain." I looked at her and took a shaky breath to steady myself before continuing.

"Akina, even though she's in 9th grade, doesn't need to go to school. She's a genius with a work ethic, and she's already at a university level with her studies. When Emily put her out of action in 7th grade, she was already several grades above the rest of us, but when she didn't have to do any strenuous activities, she suddenly had a lot of free time and…" my voice drifted off… I turned to look at her before then continuing.

"So when we were doing class placements, Akina cleared the grade level but didn't want to skip, so they just put her in the same class as me." This was a short addendum, but that more or less finished everything we'd have to say.

"B-but then don't you still have to go to school?" Eiji-kun once again directed an odd question to my cousin.

"I've made arrangements with the school… Originally this was created for Ria, so if her schedule got too complicated she could drop out for a month or two—basically I'll just send in my major assignments and come back for the graduation ceremony, and I still pass. It doesn't matter anyway, because I could always take online credits or something." I relaxed. As she spoke, her voice softened from a bitter tone to a sad, tired timbre. I never expected the day to come when I would actually appreciate Akina's pain. However, anything was better than the strange Akina that I had never experienced before.

I reached out my hand to touch hers, and she wound it around mine. She looked at the stunned boys and my sad face and decided she had enough. She got up and gave me a pat on the head before leaving. I looked at Eiji-kun before noticing that Syuusuke had gone up and left as well.

I stared at Eiji-kun, wanting to blurt out accusation after accusation. However, as Akina so blatantly put it before, it was not for me to say anything like that. So, instead, Eiji-kun finished his ice cream in silence, so we paid and left. We went outside, where Syuusuke sat on an outside bench. He rose to clasp hands with me, and as I clenched it tightly, we walked behind Eiji-kun with relative silence. _"What did you talk to Akina about?_" I asked in a quiet voice, for I knew that was why he had gone outside. Syuusuke shrugged, however, and continued smiling. At this point even I knew it was once again, not my place to ask.

* * *

**~Akina's PoV~**

The next day, after I sent Ria off to school, I changed into Shou's clothing. I walked to Court before ducking into a small clearing—here, Court was held, just us five—six, now that we had Ace—so we could properly discuss things. To them, the strangers I knew so well, I was completely frank.

"On Friday, I'm leaving. I'm going out of the country, so after we move Court; it'll be the last you see of me for a while. I'm coming back though, so there's no need to find a new Prince… It's just that the wait will be long, and you can't always be tied down in one place just because I'm not here." I took a deep breath. "So, I'm appointing someone to be in charge while I'm not here. Ace." Everyone looked at least mildly shocked, save Bishop, who merely shrugged. "I'm trusting you to take care of my Court, even though you're new around here." Something about the way he stared at the sky made him alright in my eyes. "However," I warned him, "if I catch you making a harem of my Court, or anything preposterous like that, I'll know."

Ace shrugged. "Nah, wouldn't dream of it. Girls are nice and all, but in the end, they're much too troublesome to deal with." I didn't know whether I should have been appalled or relieved, but in the end smiled.

"Alright then. Let's move Court." Bishop pulled out a map with various markings on it. We conversed about each prospective location before I decided on one—the local skate park. Rather, I only agreed to Bishop's suggestion, and when I did, Jester whooped and Knight grinned. All of the boys seemed to love that place, though I didn't like it much. I didn't _dislike_ it, but just never appreciated what I couldn't master—and I never _did_ get skating down. Be it rollerblading, trick biking, or skateboarding, I couldn't ever do it. The week I spent 'learning,' gave me the most amount of bruises and scrapes I had ever had at once.

I sighed. "Let's go." Rook, who had skipped school to move Court with us, pumped an excited fist in the air. He looked like a first year at Seishun, but I couldn't be sure.

"Yeah! Let's go. I've never skipped school for the Court before; Shou usually goes to school, too." He babbled excitedly as I smiled embarrassedly. We walked quickly and I sat upon one of the observatory perches, and told Ace everything he'd need to know about the Court.

As it was, when the sky got darker, I got up to leave. I bid a final farewell to everyone, giving a hug to Knight and Bishop, whom I trusted, and waved to the affectionate three. To Bishop, I mock saluted and watched him salute back to me with a casual grin on his face.

"Knowing your information network, you have my number?" Although I phrased this as a question, it was more of an assurance of knowledge. Bishop smirked and nodded, before pulling out his phone. "Good. I expect to hear from you then." With that, I left my beloved Court indefinitely. Although it wasn't my idea, I had grown to cherish what was left of my freedom, and regretfully went on with my life.

I walked home in silence, waiting for something to occur. Indeed, several things _did_ occur, and the first was a message from Bishop himself.

『As it is, Shou, you are the only girl in my contacts. 』

Although unmarked, I knew it had to be him by the way he addressed me. We exchanged messages and names, as well as additional, useful information.

『Now how will I claim to know a boy from Hyotei Gakuen? 』

『Just say we met at a tennis match; both of our schools are renowned for the sport. 』

I bitterly agreed and stopped to enjoy the second marvel: the brilliant sunset. The third was a simple indulgence in takoyaki. I thought about it, and bought another two boxes—one for Ria, and oen for Fuji. She didn't have any schedules today, or this week for that matter, as Aunt had been gracious enough for the insight, so she was probably home or at Fuji-kun's.

I reached home to find the light on at the top floor. As I rode the elevator up and let myself in, I calmly greeted the small frame to one side of me.

"'Tou-san, hello." I kicked off my shoes and put on my slippers before walking upstairs to drop off the present. However, just as I was about to ascend the staircase, I halted, and then laughed at myself. I put the bag on the kitchen and called out to the pair before heading into my room, to shower and change, and to revert back into a female once more.

I quickly showered and walked upstairs to greet Fuji-kun. Ria thanked me for the takoyaki, and I nodded and smiled at both of them before disappearing into my little 'studio'. I sat down and stretched before logging onto my computer. I typed in a few passwords before heading to my blog, and wrote a short message.

"Hello again my friends… I'm sure you miss me all, but Emily sure doesn't! She's…" I wrote out every frustration with a sigh, before finally stopping. I closed the browser and opened up my audio editing program. I flicked on the keyboard before playing out a few chords. In the end, I was unable to find the right one for the song I wanted to make, so I went online again, searching for some tips—with that, and a little bit more experimentation, I found a comfortable key and an okay chord progression. It wasn't the most original thing in the world, but at least it suited my purpose. I wrote a bit more before opening the door. After musing around for a while, I began to write lyrics. As I wrote, a melody formed itself in my head.

_Tear drops_

_Fall down_

_Cascading softly to the ground_

_I alone, hear the cry from you._

_Softly_

_You turn_

_Smiling at me with such pain in your eyes,_

_Missing of course, that which is burning my soul_

This melody was heartbreaking and heartwarming, though built off an experience that wasn't mine. I had read it in a book, and had been so enamored by the concept that I suppose it just stuck in my head. It was enough, however, to note with great satisfaction, at the progress of my singing. I once had an instructor in Nevada that constantly reiterated one and only one point—emotion, though this probably wouldn't suit her standard either. I realized one day that the only way to sing with enough expressiveness would be to stab myself with a bloody knife and sing while sobbing out pain. As I valued my life, and didn't quite want to kill myself, I would refrain from that.

Anyway, I thought this was an improvement. I was just about to begin recording when a knock came on the door. I went outside to find Fuji-kun leaving, and I smiled and nodded politely at him so that he could leave. Once he did leave, I sighed, staring at Ria guiltily before pulling her into the studio.

"Here's the basic melody," I said, playing it out on the keyboard. Ria groaned good naturedly before putting on the headphones and standing at the microphone. I positioned a music stand with lyrics and a silently ticking metronome, and pressed record. As the melody started, she began to sing along.

I closed my eyes and listened along. This was better—after all, the song had been written for Ria. I was only recording myself as a reference for her. Once she finished, we both listened back and smiled at the end product. This way, we could both have fun. I saved the project and began to shut everything down. It was fun, but it would go into the recesses of my hard drive alongside of everything else. I wasn't actually good at creating songs, just lyrics, and this song didn't fit Ria's image anyway.

At least I had something to do while Fuji-kun was here, you know?

**I am not a gifted lyricist, but the 'songs' above are indeed mine. Please leave a review, if it's not too much trouble! :)**


	8. Leaving

**This is the last piece of chapter 6, which means the updates will be infrequent again. I just hope you won't have to deal with such long/short/long chapters anymore.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.**

**Chapter 8 – Leaving**

* * *

On Thursday, I was packing. Although Ria went to school as usual, I was busily packing away my clothes and items. I was surprised at the amount of possessions I had accumulated. When we had first moved here, we didn't have too many boxes, especially since on-campus, we wore uniforms. Now, as I packed away my favorite items, I reveled in the fact that my suitcase was filled to the brim. Most of my possessions I left here; I would eventually come back, after all, so the loss of my extensive wardrobe was not a big deal. There; I was done with my check-in luggage.

However, it was still only 11 AM presently, so I continued packing my carry on, a large, yet comfortable backpack, with essentials. That being done, I got up to stretch and shower.

I exchanged my rumpled pajamas for jeans and a T-shirt, with a large sweatshirt on top. The weather was indeed getting colder, so I decided to sacrifice fashion for comfort, and didn't even bother putting in my contacts. Instead, I left on my large black rimmed glasses and got up to leave. I brought my cell phone, of course, and my mp3 player, but aside from those, I brought nothing else. See, I would be having brunch with Ria's parents in preparation for my leaving, so I didn't need anything else. At the appointed time, a black limousine picked me up at the front of the apartment and I was driven to Ria's house.

Although Ria and I lived where we did, for convenience to our busy schedules and school, Ria's parents had a much larger house at the other end of town. I listened to music and stared out the window, and in no time at all, I was at her house. Although it was a large house, it wasn't a mansion, and as I used to live here, I knew exactly where I was going. As I walked in, a breathless Ria joined me. "Hey!" we greeted each other before sweeping into the dining room. There, Auntie and Uncle sat with food already steaming hot in front of them.

We sat down to eat and it was really good. I laughed at Ria's interactions with her parents while never once feeling alienated. All three of them were really nice to me. As we finished, Ria stood up and adjusted her clothes—she had to go back to school on time, so she would be leaving first. "Akina," she prompted, causing me to look up at her, an inquiring look on my face. "Let's go out to eat dinner, okay?" I had no objection to this, so I smiled and nodded. "Great!" She said, "I'll message you the information."

"As long as it's not during class, Ria," Auntie said teasingly. With a meek 'yes, Mother,' Ria left, a smile on her face.

"Alright, Akina, let's talk about your future!" Auntie's bright voice swept over me, causing me to laugh.

"Hai," I responded obligingly. Auntie had the maids clear away the food, and she laid out various papers.

"You'll be staying here, and here are your schedules for the first day. The agency there will direct you as you go on, but don't hesitate to contact us if there's something wrong…" Focused on the task at hand, all three of us bent over the paper for my training experience.

Later, as I left, I looked at my phone.

『I have _one_ thing to do tonight, so 5PM at XX Burger shop, okay? 』 I sighed good naturedly before responding 'OK' to the text.

My meeting dragged on a bit long, and ended with Uncle giving me a new laptop. I sighed as I hugged the rather heavy thing. It was a very tech model, so I was grateful, as my desktop would be staying with the rest of my studio, in Tokyo. I would be sitting in for final exams tomorrow, and then I would go to my plane. I quickly reviewed the information that I had learned a long time ago and put it away. The anticipation was immense. I had always put my dreams on the back burner to support my cousin, but now I would finally get the chance to shine. Didn't I deserve that?

My mind flashed back to my conversation with Fuji-kun.

"_You should really consider what you're doing to your cousin and to your friends," he said, voice soft but clear._

"_Believe it or not, Ria doesn't need me the way she used to," I replied, voice happy, but tired, tired of everything that had passed by in the past few days._

"_If you're such a _tensai_, you would know—other people are not like you. And you can't possibly expect them to act like you, either." My mind flashed with anger, and I turned to face Fuji-kun._

"_All my life, I have been told that. Not just that, but to live with this responsibility, to always take care and watch over those who aren't as "_gifted"_ as I am. When was it going to be my turn? Why couldn't _I_ shine for once?" I swallowed. "Look. I love Ria to pieces, and believe me, this is the first time I've ever reacted like this. But trust me; I have my reasons for doing this. Ria knows it, too. All I've done is stopped the stalling. This was going to happen sooner or later, and well, I just hope you'll support the both of us when push comes to shove."_

_Fuji-kun's voice, gentle and caring, like that of a good friend, replied lightly. "Of course I will." Knowing he was sincere, I smiled and left._

I swallowed in my dry mouth and sighed. Luckily, there had been no hard feelings between us two, so I could leave without a burden like that. I looked at the time, and finding it quite near the time Ria had asked of me, left the house.

* * *

**~Ria's PoV~**

"She's coming, guys! Everyone, pipe _down_!" I urgently silenced everyone as Akina entered the Burger shop. I signaled behind my back, and in a flash, everyone from our class (and then some) popped up from their hiding places.

"_Surprise!_" Surprise indeed! Akina's face was so shocked that I couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey, Akina-san, when were you going to tell us that you were leaving?" One of our classmates asked jokingly, affectionately calling out to the startled cousin of mine. Her face cracked into a huge smile as she saw all the decorations we had put up, and laughed.

"Well, I _am_ coming back tomorrow for final exams." Everyone groaned at the thought of exams, but hastily changed the subject. No one wanted to think about that! Still, on that note, the party started.

Thank goodness Mom had such an amazing budget for parties. Akina really seemed to enjoy it, as our rambunctious class was enough to make anyone smile after the longest week of work (I would know). However, there was just something missing.

"Where did you say Eiji-kun was?" My misplaced question was not unheard, however soft it was, and Syuusuke turned to respond.

"He's still at school. He's been hitting a ball against the wall ever since practice ended." I sighed. It was so unlike Eiji-kun to keep a despondent mood, but at least it was better than his fake cheerfulness that fooled no one.

I turned my mind back to the party. If Akina was having fun, then I would have to also! I really did have to go somewhere after this, so for the moment, we would both enjoy the party.

* * *

**~Akina's PoV~**

Well, that was certainly fun, though exhausting. As I went home (alone, thanks to Ria's schedule), I sat on the living room couch and set up my laptop. The sky was entering its twilight hour, a beautiful sight for the huge windowed apartment, and I smiled to myself. I really would miss Japan. In the short time I had been here, I had come to think of it as home. As I sat there reminiscing, my phone vibrated with a text.

My eyes narrowed when I saw who it was, but I opened it anyway.

『Will you come downstairs? I think we have to talk. 』

Regretfully, I obeyed. I walked downstairs, forgetting my sweatshirt, though it was getting cold outside. I shivered as my skin came in contact with the cold night air. A shadow passed over me as a light sports jacket was flung at me—a Regular's jacket. I sighed and put it on, walking to the gate to open it for my guest.

At first, we just stood there. Then, to break the silence, he spoke.

"I don't understand." His voice was deeper, almost husky, and I realized that this wasn't the normal Kikumaru Eiji that I knew. He was different—but then again, I was, too.

"Don't understand what?" I tried hard to keep the anger from rising against me, I did. So with the forcefulness of anger suppressed, I asked him this simple question.

"Why are you mad at me? Why didn't you go to the rooftop when you asked me to, and instead ran away crying?" He didn't know, then?

"… Stupid." My response was quiet enough that he almost didn't hear it.

"What?"

"I said, don't be stupid! When I told you Emily was no friend of mine, why didn't you believe me? Why did you let her carry you around?" I stopped. It was none of my business anyway.

"I-I thought you were joking! She seemed so fun, and cute, n-" I broke him off before he could add his 'nya.'

"I thought I told you—I hate your type of cute. Guess who knows that cute better than anyone else?" His mouth opened in an O. "Yeah." I shrugged off the jacket, wanting to give it back, but Eiji-kun stopped me.

"Keep it." He flashed a bitterly sad smile at me. "You'll catch a cold." With that, he walked off, not even looking behind.

* * *

The next day, I walked into class and spoke briefly to Sensei. He smiled sadly as we spoke.

"It will be sad to have one of our best students leave us." I smiled back and thanked him for his compliment, then sat down. Soon, exams began, and I furiously scribbled, from time to time closing my mind to imagine the concept in my mind. Despite my knowledge of the topic, I wasn't fast enough, and took the entire period to finish. It had been a while since my brain was engaged in such mental processes, so I had slowed down. Still, I was finished when I finished, and so prepared to leave. The afternoon was spent celebrating the end of exams, so I didn't stay for that.

As everyone was celebrating and I walking out, I hesitated, in front of Eiji-kun's locker, and opened it. Crinkling my nose in disgust, I swept out all the chocolates that had already accumulated from the morning. I was about to put his jacket on top of his shoes when a cold voice struck me like a knife.

"Just give it to me—his girlfriend is the one who should be wearing it, after all." My hands clenched the fabric tightly before I put it in there and shut the door.

"Then take it. He gave it to me, and I'm returning it. Conversely, if _you_ took it, that would be thievery, wouldn't it? And I dear say you've already sunk low enough, Emily." On this, I spun around and continued walking.

"I didn't take you for a coward, Akina. Poor, poor Akina. I didn't even do anything. I just kissed a cute boy and you decided to skip school for weeks?" Her cute, high voice was the epitome of innocence, though I certainly heard the evil within.

"Oh, don't worry about me," I said, a smile on my face as I called back to her. "I'm headed off to bigger and better things, and you'll always be your catty old self." I was almost at the gate, where I would get into my ride and go to the airport. Six more steps. Five more.

"**Do you think you're **_**better**_** than me?**" Emily's voice shrieked, high and shrill, all airs gone. "**Get this right for once—I'm better than you. I have always been and always will be, so don't even bo-**" I opened the door and got in the car. Before closing it shut, however, I smiled and waved at her.

"再見."

I got on my plane, luggage checked and carry-on in front of me. Despite arriving at the airport in the afternoon, all the processing took so long that it was almost night time in Tokyo. I stretched luxuriously in the first class seat and stared absentmindedly out the window. They had lit the runway lights, and soon, we were taking off.

I watched as my entire world for the past few months grew smaller and smaller, and closed my eyes. I smiled contentedly and began to listen to my iPod. Maybe I could turn over a new leaf in Seoul, learn some new things, and expand my sight. Finally, I would be able to live my dream.

**

* * *

Chinese terms:**

再見 - Goodbye

**Aww, isn't it sad? Don't worry, things always get better after a storm. It's just a matter of picking up the pieces.**


	9. David

**Sorry guys, this took a while, didn't it? I wanted to give you guys a lengthy chapter so I typed around 9 pages worth before getting stuck. However, I think from now on I'll be releasing chapters of about 3 or 4 pages at a time because it makes the story flow better.**

**Seeing everyone favoriting and sometimes reviewing makes me really happy. I hope I can continue to please you guys~**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. It belongs to someone else and is licensed to other people. **

**Chapter 9: David**

It seemed to take no time at all for the plane to arrive in Seoul. I got off the plane and collected my luggage, all in a calm stupor. The climate being different, I expected to feel different as well, but instead, I felt numb to the changes around me. It was all so surreal. I turned on my phone to message Ria, and walked to my chauffeur. "Hello," I greeted politely in Korean, though I blushed at my strange accent. Language wasn't something people could learn without hearing it often, and though my teacher tried, it wasn't exactly enough. He smiled kindly at me before replying in fluent, though accented, Japanese

"Hello Miss. Let me take you to the car." I followed obediently, and soon arrived at the house I would be staying at. As arranged by Aunt and Uncle, I would be staying at a past classmate of theirs that was worked as a manager here in Korea. The driver parked by the door as I got my luggage and got to the door. I had barely lifted my finger from the doorbell when I heard laughter and a woman's voice accompanying it.

"That must be Akina-chan!" I heard the English and welcomed the second language change. My Korean was barely sufficient, I feared, and the ride here had done nothing to assuage my fears. "Hello, Akina, I'm Grace!" Her voice was sing song-y and while not perfect, or even polished, it made me smile. She gestured into the house, and I followed, suddenly reticent, and polite.

It was a brightly colored place, with lighting everywhere. However, the most noticeable part of the house was the vast amount of open space. The furniture was openly spaced so that although there were plenty of places to sit, the house never appeared cluttered.

"David, do you want to come down and greet your new housemate?" David was the boarder I had heard about, I guess, though my landlady certainly treated him like family. A resonant "no," rang through the house, and while I pondered the voice as something familiar, she shrugged. "David is tired, I suppose… He just came back from practice. Because he'll debut in a few months, it's been hard on him. You'll see him for dinner, so don't worry!"

I didn't mind, somehow timid in these new circumstances. I slowly brought all of my luggage upstairs and unpacked even slower. I listened to music and emailed Ria, but other than that, the remainder of the night was peaceful.

* * *

I woke up to a knock on the door. It was abrupt, and a curt voice came from the door. "Lunch is in twenty minutes. Wake up." I turned groggily to the window and noticed the stream of light that was coming in. I sat up and scratched my head. I must have fallen asleep while I was cleaning up! I looked at my phone to see a few new messages from Ria, and I quickly replied before I could remember that she had school at this time. Then, I noticed my appearance in the mirror. I rummaged through my drawers and ran into the bathroom with speed, embarrassed at my disheveled appearance. I showered in record time, too, and managed to slide into the kitchen in less than 25 minutes. My eyes were slightly red and crusty because I slept in my contacts, so I had to wear my glasses, but that wasn't a big deal. I didn't mind wearing glasses once in a while.

Anyway, as I popped into the kitchen, I saw the back of a boy's head—David's, I guess—visibly engrossed in a newspaper, and Grace, bustling around in the kitchen. "There you are! We were just going to order out." She grimaced as she glanced to the side, where I noticed many, many burnt trays.

"I don't see why you wanted to cook in the first place; neither of us can do it, yet you insist on buying groceries and everything." David grunted from behind his paper. I smiled and rolled up my sleeves.

"Let me see what I can do then!" I searched through the drawers for some ramen and quickly made three bowls of noodle soup. Grace helped me set the bowls on the table as I cleaned up, laughing.

"Looks like you're earning your keep!" I smiled and continued moving around when I heard a voice.

"Akina?"

"Yes?" I asked, not bothering to turn around. My hands were busy putting away extraneous vegetables and washing a bowl or two. Finally, I turned around and faced David.

"You're Akina, right? Akina Suzuki?" I scrutinized the incredulous face and a bell rang in my head.

"David? David Lee? What are you doing here?"

"I'm uh, living here?" Suddenly bashful, David was nothing like the person that had woken me up this morning. Grace laughed and looked at the two of us.

"What am I missing, guys? Some hidden connection?" At this, David got on his feet and walked over to me, visibly excited.

"We were friends at school, years ago."

I tried to clear this up. "We were in the same friend circle, I guess, but not best of friends."

"Well, only 'cuz you stuck to your sister—"

"Cousin."

"Cousin, like glue! Sure you'd hang out with us, but once your ankle healed up and the semester ended, you went back to the dance academy and ditched us singers." I smiled at the memory.

"I guess, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the time spent there." Grace cleared her throat again.

"Well, it's good that you guys have lost yourselves in your new hidden connection, but we have to start the day. Eat, and then you can escort Akina around Seoul for some clothes and other things she needs." David groaned but sat down good naturedly, and we were soon eating lunch.

* * *

"Why didn't you recognize me?" David prodded, as we walked along the street. I shrugged.

"David's a pretty common name, you know, and besides, I didn't see your face. Oh, I did sort of recognize your voice though." I turned to him. "But because you're older now, your voice is deeper!" He blushed, but nodded.

"I haven't debuted yet, but I will in a few months… Things are definitely picking up around here." When I pressed him for more details, he continued. "Uh, my group name is Pentagon." It seemed like a weird name to me, and David seemed to understand that. "It had to grow on me, really." I shrugged, and we continued walking on, and suddenly it was his turn to ask questions.

"So are you dancing in Korea?" I could hear his grasping for conversation, so I talked to fill the awkwardness.

"I'm actually not doing any idol work in Korea… at least not now. I'll be helping you, I think… Whatever Grace sees fit. I'm her assistant, basically." I grinned. "But if I were doing anything, I'd be singing."

His eyes lit up and he began to laugh. "How ironic! You study dancing for four years, one semester of singing, and you want to be a singer?" I nodded. "Well, I'm no better," he admitted. "I haven't really danced outside of the mandatory classes, but here I am, and they want me for my dancing."

"Well," I said, checking my watch, "we got all the groceries and won't need to be back until a few hours later. How about you show me what you've learned?"

He smirked and wagged a finger at me. "How about we get these home first? Eggs and milk spoil, you know." I blushed with anger.

"Of course! Besides, why am I the one holding all the heavy items?"

"Because you're strong," he teased, and I wondered why I hadn't talked to him more before. His face settled into a pondering state again. After that, we settled into relative silence.

Eventually, we reached the house and David helped me unload the groceries. We finished putting things away and were enjoying some juice boxes when Grace popped her head in.

"Nice to see that you two are back! What took you so long? Didn't I tell you to take the car?" She grimaced. "Maybe not. Never mind then! We have work to do, so I'll drop you off at the practice hall in 20 min." She winked at me. "You have to work too but you'll mostly be following David because I can't be around them always! Lucky you, to be around five hot guys! Now get going. We leave in 10 minutes, Akina, go change into something more comfortable. Pants and a T-shirt will do well. There's no need to pretty at a dance studio. David, wipe that stupid grin off your face and help me close the windows shut. I heard a storm was coming through later tonight." She managed to say all of this in seconds and both of us stood promptly at attention and went to complete our assigned duties.

I changed into sweatpants and a T-Shirt, and then put my hair in a ponytail, then raced downstairs to meet David and Grace at the car.

**Okay, this chapter has some dedications!**

**First to **_**signora del cielo delle stele**_**: I got your note~ Don't worry, you didn't freak me out, I laughed a lot and you made me smile. The delays of my chapters have been entirely my own, and I hope you'll forgive me for it.**

**Second, to **_**xbamsod**_**: I'm really glad you like this story! I told you I was working on it, but after getting stuck… anyway, you made me feel guilty enough to sufficiently take a look at the pacing in these chapters~**

**Lastly, to all the people who reviewed. Every time you guys review, I feel so much happier inside and want to type even more! I'm sorry the chapters are going to be shorter from now on, but I'm just spacing as I see fit. This story would be very short otherwise!**

**Also, because I feel bad about bothering my beta, I'm just going to leave these chapters unbeta'd from now on. If you notice errors, tell me so I can fix them. Thank you!**


	10. 1, 2 Step

**Here's the next part. I had this finished **_**ages**_** ago, but I just wanted to have a two chapter buffer in case I ran out of time to type more later. That being said, I haven't actually finished the 11th chapter yet... I'm really sorry _ **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. I haven't even bought the manga. Why? I'm poor. Sorry. **

**Chapter 10: 1, 2, Step**

"Hey guys," David greeted casually in Korean as he walked into the room. "I uh, brought a friend."

"A friend? As in a _girlfriend?_" I blushed and bowed nervously to them. I wanted to retort badly, but I curbed the desire and greeted them in plain Korean.

"Guys, relax. This is Suzuki Akina, a friend from my dance school." Each of them greeted me with a smile, and I, deeply nervous, began to talk to David in English, realizing it was rude of me to do so.

"**Can you tell them I'm not your girlfriend?**" I could understand every fourth word of the fast paced conversation, but I wanted no misunderstandings to exist between me and David's friends. David quickly explained to me what he had said, and turned to the others.

"What are we doing right now?" Since we were late, and the members were just hanging around, not only was I confused, but David as well.

They shrugged. "Nothing really. Dance practice was pushed back an hour, so we're not doing much." Grace-san probably did it to give us some time to get to know each other, I thought to myself. I sat down next to the members and smiled shyly at them.

"Okay, should we play a game or something then?" David suggested. "Since we're singers, too, let's play a singing game." Of course, the singer would pick a singing game. I agreed readily enough, glad to sing whenever I had the chance.

"What kind of game though? No making up melodies because that's difficult. And this is fun, too, so we shouldn't have to try too hard," one boy complained.

"Well, everyone knows that Japanese animation, XYZ's theme song, right? Let's use that, and make up new lyrics!" I rather enjoyed this idea and agreed. We played along, having fun, and gradually I felt the boys relax and trust me more.

After an hour, the choreographer had not come, so I assumed he was running late and looked pointedly at David. I was, after all, here for a reason, and to waste time would be pointless and actually detrimental to Pentagon's success.

"Please show me your dance," I asked politely. David laughed and turned to the rest of the group.

"Akina's a genius at dancing, so she's going to help us out a bit." One boy, Woojung, frowned.

"Boys and girls have different dancing styles. How is she going to be able to follow along?" While it was true that boys tended to have more complex choreography, I wasn't trained in any particular style, and actually preferred the intense boyband dances. Also, there were all the dances that I had to learn under Shou's name… I shook my head slightly to get the thoughts out of my head. I didn't actually blame Woojung for doubting me, but I _was_ slightly bothered by it.

I surveyed all of them, but focused on Woojung, the one who had scoffed at my talent. He didn't really have more complex choreography, and his movements were precise, albeit stiff. David was holding up well for someone who had only ever taken singing classes, but I reasoned that he attended some sort of boot camp when he arrived in Korea. The other boys were fine, but not the best. Now I understood why Grace had told me to wear cargo pants and a T-shirt. As the music ended, the boys walked over as if expecting praise, but instead I wanted to ask them a few questions.

"**Where is your choreographer?**" I asked David, and he scratched his head.

"That guy? Well, he comes in every now in then…" I looked at him incredulously. This was the one of the largest entertainment companies in Korea, and yet they still employed a slacker choreographer who wouldn't perfect their dance? What kind of person was he anyway?

A cough from the doorway startled all of us, and I turned my head to look. "_Sensei!_" It was my hip-hop instructor from Japan! That explained a lot; it was just like him to slack off. I scowled. "_Sensei, don't smoke inside the building._" He laughed raucously and dropped the cigarette, crushing it with his shoe. However, before I could reprimand him, he moved over and sat down.

"_You understand, right? Why these boys have no hope of being popular from their debut. They refuse to understand all of my explanations, and keep insisting on seeing it for themselves_." He sighed heavily. "_I'm too old to show them the dances anymore_."

"_Sensei,_" I interjected, "_You are only 32._" He ignored this and went on with his lament.

"_I do not want to do this. They aren't receptive to the fact that it is their laziness that brings them from their full potential._"

"_Sensei! Those people have worked very hard. How can you just say that about them?_" He glared at me and switched to Korean.

"I saw your performance just now. Let's start with the eight-count." The boys obligingly got into position, and David turned around to point to a video camera on the table.

"Akina, could you record us? Sometimes that helps." I grabbed the camera and sat down on the floor, more than happy to record. At first, the camera fluttered between David and Woojung, but soon turned to another boy. Compared to Woojung, his movements were more fluid, so I found myself enjoying the dance more. As the song finished again, I caught a smile on my face, and turned to ask David about him before Sensei interrupted.

"Akina, do you know the dance yet?" I shook my head, and he pointed to Woojung. "Teach it to her." I protested valiantly, but Sensei was adamant.

"I'll do each part for you and then you copy, alright?" I nodded, and opened my eyes wide. "Alright, let's go." He moved slowly, making sure that I understood each move in a set before repeating the set at normal speed. As we moved, Sensei stood by and shouted at us.

"This song is about heartbreak and moving on. Stop being so stiff Akina, are you paralyzed by your breakup or are you empowered by it?" Sensei really lacked tact or even good word choice. I grit my teeth however, and continued moving.

"How about she gets the dance first, and then fixes it?" Woojung was irritated too from the interruption of his thought process.

"No! The more times you repeat something, the more it becomes engrained in your head. If you remember it as stiff and unforgiving, then you shall dance in a stiff and unforgiving manner. It is extremely difficult to change a habit. That's why the initial learning process is so important." Sensei's grainy smoker's voice rasped at us until I glared at him.

"_Wakaru!"_ I knew that already! I shot a glare at my teacher. I replayed the parts I had already learned and relaxed, adding fluidity and flare at the same time. Yes, it was a hip-hop song, but pop and locking was completely different from being stiff and unmoving. After twenty minutes, Woojung and I had blocked out the entire dance, and though it was still far from perfect, Sensei stopped us.

"Great. Now set it to the music, and dance to it." I exhaled and stared at the giant mirror wall. David calmly pressed play, and I began to dance.

Perhaps it was the fact that I rather enjoyed the heavily pulsing dance beat. Maybe it was the fact that by this time I had entirely forgotten the presence of anyone but my annoyingly loud teacher, who continued to criticize my movements. I gradually tuned him out, too, and soon I was moving in time to the music.

My one great quality is that I am diligent. I had worked hard on perfecting the art of _learning_ these dances because I wanted to be good at it. I did love the feeling of the beat drumming in my body, and that movement stirred happiness within me. When I completed the dance, I stopped and took a deep breath, reorienting myself with the surroundings and then clutching the bar on the mirror for support. I glanced at my sensei, who seemed conflicted.

"There is still so much I could improve with that dance…" he began to mutter to himself, before he caught himself and turned back to the real topic of worry. "…but it's more important that you all noticed her movement! See the way she pivoted; it was clean and yet _flowed_ with the dance, not broke it up further. Her arm movements mimic a swan, which is actually far too elegant for this dance… Theoretically, a happy medium between the stiff robotics you are performing and her water like fluidity would be the best." Although I knew my dance instructor was of Japanese ethnicity, he spoke Korean so much better than I had ever heard him speak in Japanese. The words flowed off his tongue and I could barely understand.

"Alright. Let's try it again, but slower." Sensei seemed to be more patient with them than he usually was to me. "I want you guys to go in two groups, and the other people follow and comment on what they can do better." I watched eagerly at this part. Because my lessons were always individual, I had not been in a group dance session in a long time. I was told not to dance, but watch closely.

"Well first, I have a few comments from the first time I watched you guys. David, you need to stop worrying about getting the moves right because you know them. Woojung-ssi needs to relax a bit…"


End file.
